The anti-war movement in the sixties fought for and won the elimination of the draft.
The warmongers are against bringing it back now, not because they would not enjoy
access to more cannon fodder, but because with an already deeply unpopular war
they do not think they could get away with it.
On the other hand, if supposedly left-wing, anti-war crusaders like McDermott are willing
to dress up a Draft proposal in a cloak of progressive values like fairness and equality it
might eventually become feasible to bring it back without stimulating an outburst of protest.
This is the service the ever loyal Charlie Wrangle and now Jim McDermott are providing to the imperial war machine.
It does not make any sense for the left to support the reinstatement of
the draft just so we could once again enjoy a high level of protest as we once
again campaign to eliminate it. It's like arguing for an increased use of the
death penalty so we could fight to reduce it.
Here is a reminder of a few more betrayals of the anti-war movement perpetrated by McDermott that got almost zero coverage in the press and that consequently very few people ever heard about:
When Jim McDermott was asked by Ross Reynolds on the Seattle KUOW Conversation show on March 16, 2007 if he was going to vote against the Iraq War Supplemental he said, "I haven't voted for a supplemental since I [inaudible] since the war began so it would be unlikely I would vote for it". Seven days later when Pelosi's funding bill needed just a few more votes to stay alive, McDermott sprung to the rescue with a vote in favor. On the next round of voting when Pelosi had all the votes she needed, McDermott turned around and voted against it.
McDermott's assertion that he had never previously voted for an Iraq war funding bill was an outright lie. According to the Washington Post voting database, the House of Reps. voted for passage of H R 1559 , the Emergency Wartime Supplemental Appropriations Act on April 3, 2003, at exactly 10:59 p.m. This was 2 weeks after the invasion of Iraq began. Nine Representatives voted against the measure. They were Earl Blumenauer, Peter DeFazio, Sam Farr, Raúl Grijalva, Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee, John Lewis, Diane Watson, Lynn Woolsey. Jim McDermott's name was not among them.
Why do "progressives" like Jim McDermott never make any headway within the confines of the Democratic Party? Because, despite the name, there is virtually nothing democratic about the internal structures of the party and people like McD know when to bow down like loyal puppies.
References:
http://projects.washingtonpost
http://www.vcnv.org/files
