this post was submitted on 15 Jun 2024
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[–] [email protected] 185 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Automatic draft, but notvoter registration...

[–] [email protected] 69 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Just because the politicians want to grab you out of your life and use you as cannon fodder doesn't mean they want to actually be as accountable to you as they're supposed to.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Politicians voting for mandatory draft should be on the frontline. Pieces of shit.

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[–] [email protected] 43 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Automatic registration for Selective Services, not automatic draft. That’s very different. This is actually helpful in keeping people out of prison or getting fined for not registering.

But yes, this absolutely proves that they could automatically register people to vote with no designated party affiliation.

[–] [email protected] 24 points 4 months ago (15 children)

As a European I have always been confused when Americans talk about "voter registration". The way it works in my country is you are legally required to register your residence with the government and that registration is automatically used to determine a voter registry (just filtering by age, citizenship and exclusion due to criminal convictions all of which is information already known to the government). I always just get a letter a few weeks before elections informing me where my polling place is.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (4 children)

Well you see, in the United States, the way some politicians, specifically ones belonging to a certain very authoritarian political party manage to get elected is by making sure people don't or can't vote.

This is often coupled with throwing a huge hissy fit about "voter fraud" which doesn't actually exist on any remotely meaningful level.

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[–] [email protected] 98 points 4 months ago (6 children)

I might catch hate for this but I never understood why it wasn't automatic the entire time since it's illegal to not register.

[–] [email protected] 31 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Easy way to funnel the lazy into prison labor?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (7 children)

Not any more at least. Prior to this bill, failing to register for Selective Services was a felony punishable by imprisonment for up to five years and/or a fine of not more than $250,000.

Now you’re automatically enrolled. I think it’s actually better this way.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Because there has not been a draft since the 70s, where automatic registration was not feasible.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Yes, but failure to register was a felony.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It was not automatic so rich people can avoid it. I have never heard of someone facing criminal charges for failing to register. I have heard that failing to register can impact eligibility for college financial aid and scholarships.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 4 months ago (13 children)

You're already legally required to manually register with the selective service if you are male and you turn 18.

Why not just introduce legislation to end that requirement altogether.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago

Don't give them ideas.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

As an aside, my parents kept me out of the "the system" for most of my youth so I missed my deadline, I never knew it existed.

This made me ineligible for some benefits like federal loans and other programs. I wrote to Selective Service with a notarized letter that my failure to register was truly an oversight and they sent me a waiver and cleared my status.

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[–] [email protected] 65 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Remember kids, you can be a draft dodger and be president 😎👉👉

[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (5 children)

Which would be fine if said draft dodger wasn't a chickenhawk.

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[–] [email protected] 59 points 4 months ago (1 children)

So people can be automatically registered for the draft, but not automatically registered to vote? Seems like bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago

You didn't think the government would actually do something for you, did you?

[–] [email protected] 55 points 4 months ago (6 children)

For one, I think this was already required. I remember having to enroll in selective service.

For two though, whoever calls another draft is dead in the water. It's commonly accepted that starting an actual draft is political suicide.

That said, it would be nice if we could codify that and ban the draft.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 4 months ago (6 children)

You are required to sign up but they usually only can enforce it in ways such as applying for a driver's license or voter registration. Maybe more kids aren't applying for drivers licenses and therefore aren't signing up.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 4 months ago (1 children)

if you never sign up you're excluded from a number of government jobs such as at the post office.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago (3 children)

That would make sense, I never pay attention but it would make sense why so many applications ask about it

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago (2 children)

I wouldn't put it past the Republican party to bring conscription to the table. Probably with all kinds of exceptions and loopholes to either keep their own kids out of it entirely or guarantee cush domestic desk jobs to show how patriotic they are. Everybody else gets to line up with a rifle.

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[–] [email protected] 52 points 4 months ago

Fully automated luxury war slavery

[–] [email protected] 49 points 4 months ago

This will definitely get the kids voting Republican.

GOP 2024: We want you to die.

[–] [email protected] 42 points 4 months ago (8 children)

Disagree, just make the draft also affect women so it's not sexist

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[–] [email protected] 38 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Some folks inherit star-spangled eyes

Ooh, they send you down to war, Lord

And when you ask 'em, "How much should we give?"

Ooh, they only answer, "More! More! More!" Yo

[–] [email protected] 37 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Seems like a pretty good Common Sense legislation really. You already have to register by law so making it automatic would be easier for all of us and avoid anyone getting in trouble for something stupid. I don't see a downside to this. I would like to see it apply to voting registration too however.

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[–] [email protected] 35 points 4 months ago (3 children)

Fuck the draft. Dodge the draft.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 4 months ago

If you can dodge a draft, you can dodge a ball

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (17 children)

Technically, the USA already required you to sign up for the draft right around the time you received your Social Security Card. The draft has not been used since 1973 and earlier. So this basically has no adverse effect. Even if a draft happened all the same people who would have been drafted before will be drafted now.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 4 months ago (3 children)

You're required to sign up within 30 days of your 18th birthday. You should have (well your parents anyway) a social security card within the first year of your life, strange outliers aside.

It's still technically a crime knowingly not registering, with a $250k fine, even if it hasn't been prosecuted in decades.

It also bars you from federal government jobs, many federal programs, and grants. Until 2020, it also barred any federal financial aid for education, but that's changed now.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 4 months ago
[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

Kinda a nothing burger really. The military doesn't want conscripts unless there's an existential threat to the country.

So there's two scenarios:

  1. Selective service continues to exist and is only used if there's an existential threat to the country
  2. Selective service is eliminated and is re-instated only if there's an existential threat to the country

Option 2 is preferable since it eliminates the cost of a program that will likely never be used again. But it still doesn't eliminate the possibility of a draft since if the country were under an existential threat in the future, legislation can be passed to bring it back. So Option 2 isn't effectively different from Option 1, other than the cost savings.

As it is, selective service is basically just a political talking point, and a way to "own the libs" or whatever. The best way to argue against it is to make an argument around the cost of a program that doesn't really accomplish anything. But the libs take the bait and argue about not wanting to be drafted, which isn't wrong, but that makes the libs look weak in the eyes of many, and it allows Republicans get to make hay about their opposition being weak.

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