Monday, June 23, 2025

WILL DEMOCRATS BE TOO HIGH-MINDED TO RESPOND TO YOUNG PEOPLE'S WAR FEARS?

On the U.S. bombing of Iraqi nuclear sites, there's a massive generation gap:


Some of this is a fear that they'll be cannon fodder, as a young congressional candidate and former Media Matters journalist notes:

If Democrats truly want to appeal to young men, they should probably start presenting themselves as the party that definitively *won’t* draft you into an illegal war.

— Kat Abughazaleh (@katmabu.bsky.social) June 22, 2025 at 2:42 PM

Just today, I’ve talked to two teenage boys and five different parents who all said the same thing: Young men are TERRIFIED right now. You want their vote? Be the one to stand up for their lives because God knows warmongers won’t.

— Kat Abughazaleh (@katmabu.bsky.social) June 22, 2025 at 2:42 PM

But the Big Brain response to this isn't "Democrats should show they're on the side of the young." It's "The young are idiots to worry about this."

I am all for someone taking advantage of this fear if they can make it stick but just between us, WHY DOES ANYONE THINK A DRAFT IS A POSSIBILITY

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— George Pearkes (@peark.es) June 22, 2025 at 5:59 PM

US hasn't had a draft in over 50 years. Highest troop level was Iraq, and didn't use a draft. No Dem proposed a draft, nor wars that'd need one. Where did these young men get the idea they're going to be drafted, and by a Dem president no less? That's a misinformation problem, not a policy problem.

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— Nicholas Grossman (@nicholasgrossman.bsky.social) June 22, 2025 at 4:03 PM

If only we could determine where young men developed the preposterous idea that they're at risk of being drafted...


What are Trump's plans for the military? What are his limits? Trump has hinted at using the military in Mexico and Canada and Greenland while launching strikes against Iran and deploying troops on U.S. soil. Where's his limit? What are you certain he won't do?

And what happens if there's a major terrorist attack against Americans? What do you think Trump will do? Can you list the guardrails you're certain will hold?

Sure, we haven't had a draft since the 1970s. But we haven't had a president like second-term Trump, or a cabinet like his collection of amateurs, fanatics, conspiratorialists, and traitors, in American history. I don't blame young people for believing there are no limits to what can happen. Democrats should try to make it clear that they don't want to fight half the world and don't want to militarize America. They should oppose a draft for every deployment of military force Trump has ever mentioned or suggested. But I'm sure they'll listen to all the smart people who say that only idiots would worry about a raving lunatic in the Oval Office doing something irrational.

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