The wisdom of Publius and our militarized society

Sandy Levinson

In Federalist 8, Publius (in that case Alexander Hamilton) warns that failure to ratify the Constitution would lead to the almost inevitable breakup of the fragile United States (under the Articles of Confederation) and the creation of two or three independent countries.  Each of them would have to create its own armed forces.  More to the point, each of them would genuinely be consumed by fear of war and thus become steadily more militarized in its culture.  On the other hand, if we ratified the Constitution, there would be only one standing army to pay for and, more importantly, we could rest secure that we really wouldn't have to worry very much about the prospects of actual war, since we would be united internally and we'd have the "pond" of the Atlantic Ocean to protect us against against imminent invasions from European powers.

Whatever one thinks of that argument's validity in 1787, it speaks to us today in a very different key:  That is, the "pond" is no longer an effective barrier, even when supplemented by the far bigger one of the Pacific Ocean.  Instead, we are terrified of an attack from North Korea some ten thousand miles away, and we have military bases literally all over the world (including, of course, South Korea, 65 years after the "armistice" that ostensibly ended the armed conflict there).  And we have become a thoroughly militarized culture, where the "defense" budget is the tail that wags the dog, seemingly immune from serious cost-cutting.  We reflexively treat everyone in the armed services as a "hero" whose service demands gratitude, unlike, say, school teachers who, especially if they are in the public schools, are increasingly treated as almost contemptible by the powers that be.

What provokes these remarks is a fascinating piece in The Economist on the Parkland school shooting by Nikolas Cruz.  Not only was he not an undocumented alien or a Muslim, which one suspects was the hope of the Trump Administration; he was in fact a "veteran," so to speak, of the Junior Reserve Officers Training Corp program, funded by federal tax dollars through the Pentagon, "that provides military-style training to high-school pupils."  As the article points out, the program (or, in Brit-spelling, "programme") has become an essential recruiting tool for the Pentagon, especially in these days of low unemployment when youngsters might legitimately wonder why they should go into the armed forces rather than seek some other form of employment.  (This, of course, brings up very important questions about our move toward an "all-volunteer" army, the topic of a separate discussion).  The article notes that a disproportionate number of the programs are at schools with a greater enrollment of African-American and/or poorer students (defined by eligibility for reduced-cost lunches).  One suspects that Mr. Cruz was just the kind of person, ex ante, they were looking for.

All programs are subject to failures, of course.  It is interesting, though, that no one, save the Economicst, has suggested that the ability of Mr. Cruz to pick up sharpshooting skills in the JROTC should cause us to think further about that program, as against the hysteria that leads trumpistas to advocate armed teachers and the like to guard against what is, at the end of the day, a far smaller threat than, say, the prospect of "ordinary" fire-arms accidents taking the lives or injuring children and other innocents.

So the next time we see a highschooler wearing a marksmanship medal gained through the JROTC should we say "thank you for your service" or wonder about the potential for some future non-state-sponsored violence?   In any event, each day beings more corroboration for Publius's basic insight.  We are increasingly defined as a "national-security, surveillance society." Donald Trump certainly didn't start it. He is simply the most grotesque manifestation of what that entails.
Posted 1:22 PM by Sandy Levinson [link]