October 14, 2003
"Civilian Reserve" Speech, 10/14/03, NYC
Clark04.com has posted the first of WKC's upcoming policy speeches, and a very fine one it is, especially deft in working in the candidate's specific acknowledgement of locals who represent the "new American patriotism."
Here's the meat:
The Civilian Service
"But, as important as these steps are, it's not enough. It leaves us short of what we need to bring a new generation into public service and to meet the uncertainty and challenges of the 21st Century. That is why today I am proposing a bold new vision for national service.
". . . The American people have a huge variety of tools and talents that can also be brought to bear - from foreign language speakers, to welders, to microbiologists. Often, those skills are as needed as the immediate lifesaving ones.
". . .Here's how it would work: Every American age 18 or over will have the opportunity to register for the civilian reserve. If you register, you'll be asked to list your abilities and the types of service that interest you.
"By registering, you commit that those skills can be called on at any time - domestically or internationally -- for the next five years. Every five years thereafter, you will be given the opportunity to re-register.
"Should something happen during your five-year commitment that demands your skills, you can be offered the opportunity to serve for a period of up to six months.
"Your service could be here in the United States, in the aftermath of an earthquake, a forest fire or a severe storm. Or you could also serve in distant lands, where the struggle for social justice and equality demands our immediate aid. . . .
"You could be biologist, a truck driver, or an accountant. Under this program, you'll be offered the opportunity to get involved when your skill set is needed, working with professional staff, lending your talents to the task at hand, making a difference.
"For example, members of the Civilian Reserves could be deployed to help to fight forest fires.
"Members of the Civilian Reserves could also aid overseas in response to our ambassador's calls for assistance in helping nations deal with environmental disasters, political and legal development, and economic growth.
". . . Under my plan, the President will have the power to call up to 5,000 civilian reservists by Executive Order, and with an act of Congress, would be authorized to mobilize even more.
"Members would be offered the opportunity to serve as the need for their skills arose. And the call to serve would, in almost all cases, be voluntary. For the most part, Civilian Reserve members could choose whether or not to accept the call to action.
"Under circumstances of grave national emergency, the president would have the authority to issue a mandatory call-up. But this would be exceedingly rare.
Still, if called, this service will not necessarily be easy.
Those who serve may be asked to give up to six months of their lives. In return, they will receive health care, a stipend, and the same rights accorded all our national guardsmen and women - the right to return to their jobs when their service is done.
"This bold plan would not create a big, new government bureaucracy. Rather, it would use technology to register the skills of those who volunteer to serve, working largely through existing organizations . . . .
"And by organizing the Reserve in advance, my proposal will improve efficiency and potentially save money by reducing the inevitable duplication, waste, and delay that plague ad hoc responses to crises.
". . .And most importantly, the Civilian Reserves gives Americans the opportunity to volunteer now. To begin to step forward and accept the responsibilities, the duties, and the joy of the New American Patriotism. . . ."
Familiar trail of Democrat hopeful (telegraph.co.uk)
Interesting perspective from the UK on WKC's years at Oxford as a Rhodes scholar and how they helped to form his character.
"Like Mr Clinton, Gen Wesley Clark, studied at Oxford in the late 1960s, against the background din of the Vietnam War.
"But there the parallels end. Mr Clinton's Oxford years drifted by in a haze of self-indulgence. He experimented with drugs, attended at least one anti-Vietnam war rally, and honed his flirtation skills, all the while failing to take any final examinations. In contrast, Gen Clark's Oxford contemporaries paint a picture of a young man weighed down by duty.
"Gen Clark's years at Magdalen, from 1966 to 1968, were successful. He won a swimming Blue and took a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics."
". . . At Oxford, Gen Clark threw himself into the Vietnam debate, defending the US position in arguments with classmates, and at the Oxford Union.
"Stew Early, a fellow Rhodes scholar and Gen Clark's oldest Oxford friend, thought a mixture of personal loyalty and ambition drove him.
". . . Mr Early argues that party labels do not fit his friend.
"'To the extent that you might have thought he was a Republican, I don't think he identified with the business establishment, or great wealth,' he said. 'That wasn't where he came from. He wanted to become a great general.'
"Mr Early, a management consultant, still recognises the competitive, driven Oxford student in his friend - the pair still jump in the nearest swimming pool whenever they meet, to test who is faster.
Oxford marked Gen Clark forever, Mr Early believes.
"'He's not an ideologue. Studying abroad, you learn there are some very bright people who think differently from you. If you go to Oxford saying "There's only the American way" you're going to lose a lot."'"
Soldiers can be liberal (Miami Herald)
Joy-Ann Reid articulates what I believe to be Clark's greatest double win as a former general: not only is he the embodiment of the (Teddy) Roosevelt doctrine, "Speak softly and carry a big stick," but he has both benefited from and helped to create the modern volunteer army as a democratic, small "d," institution.
She says, "To me, the U.S. military represents some of the best values of the party: advancement without advantage, patriotism, multilateralism, shared sacrifice and diversity.
". . . Believe it or not, not every black kid can get an athletic scholarship. So the military is one of the ways people without trust funds can pay for college, learn a trade, even see the world. The daughter of one of our family friends, Nigerian immigrants who struggled to give their kids a good, middle-class life in Denver, is now an officer in the U.S. Army, having graduated from West Point, just like Clark.
". . . In the military, integration thrives alongside meritocracy. When the University of Michigan's affirmative action program came under assault from the Bush administration, it was the armed forces that stepped forward to defend the idea of diversity, citing the vastly improved military that resulted when the forces sought to make their ranks reflect America."
Democrats Drop the Lunch Pail (washingtonpost.com)
In a WAPO op-ed column E.J. Dionne Jr. shares some insights into why running a campaign that's a clone of Clinton's in 1992 might not work this time. ". . . here's the secret of the Democratic primaries: They are no longer dominated by millworkers and milkmen. Steadily, the Democratic Party is becoming the party of the educated upper middle class."
"Just look at last week's recall vote in California: The strongest opposition to tossing Democratic Gov. Gray Davis from office came from voters with postgraduate degrees. . . Where Davis got clobbered was in the middle range -- effectively the great middle class Democrats talk about so much."
Though Dionne reserves his greatest admiration for John Edwards' burden-shift theme, as filtered through his self-made personna, he makes an encouraging point about WKC's candidacy: "The class war could play itself out in the Democratic primaries. Ruy Teixeira, a senior fellow at the Century Foundation, says his analysis of recent Gallup polls finds that while former Vermont governor Howard Dean's constituency is rooted among "upscale, antiwar social liberals," retired Gen. Wesley Clark "does really well among middle- to low-income voters."
I think that's not only because Clark appeals to lower-middle class voters who like their candidates to be strong on defense, but also because somehow he's presidential without being senatorial. He just looks like a guy who never made any real money and probably wouldn't spend all that much of it on himself if he had.
The general seriously needs some new clothes: suits that fit and drape his athletic build, and some shirts with french cuffs. May I recommend his local Oxxford retailer: Bauman's, 8201 Cantrell Road, Little Rock? But don't buy a new wardrobe just yet, sir. Cheap and cheerful is probably the way to go for the primaries.