• Anomandaris@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Can you imagine what would have happened during WW2 if that had passed? There were a number of Americans sympathetic towards the Nazis, and a much larger number of Americans sympathetic towards the Allies, but not sympathetic enough to risk the lives of their sons, fathers, and husbands. I struggle to see a world where a national vote would have resulted in a large enough majority.

    I imagine it would have extended the war by at least another five years. I do think the Nazis would still have lost eventually, as they struggle to maintain control over the entirety of Europe whilst also trying to destroy the UK and Russia. But it would likely have been a Pyrrhic victory, leaving both victors almost completely decimated too.

  • JelloBrains@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    I’m pretty sure they just did an end run around this when they knew it wasn’t going to work by making the Selective Service Act of 1917, where all men over 18 have to be registered for the draft. I had to sign up for selective service even though the draft no longer exists because they might one day bring it back, especially now they can’t meet the recruitment numbers.

  • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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    1 year ago

    This doesn’t seem particularly useful in the modern day. If you want to win a war today, you do it with highly trained soldiers and highly advanced equipment, not by handing rifles to a bunch of green volunteers or conscripts.

    • Joe@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      Plenty of jobs going in the military. If you support the war, support the war

      • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        Not that many jobs. If fully half of the country supported an act of war, there would be nowhere near enough military jobs for them to fill.

    • parrot-party@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      That’s only because we haven’t actually gone to war in a long time. Showing off our shiny toys in Desert Storm wasn’t a full scale war. Nor have any of our other excursions been. But a fight with China? You bet your ass we’d need a never ending line of barely trained soldiers to keep up with the bloodshed. We can only hope such an event never happens.

      • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        A fight with China would be over within hours, leaving both countries reduced to radioactive craters. We won’t even need soldiers for that, let alone cannon fodder.

  • TheDeadGuy@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    With a larger aging population it wouldn’t work very well, but what if was an income tax instead? Like maybe 2%

  • bumbly@readit.buzz
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    1 year ago

    Queue the “I’d rather send those less fortunate than myself to war and treat veterans like shit when they get back” comments

    • KBTR1066@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      So? Today this person learned about. It doesn’t say “Today I and Everybody Else Also Learned”. I’d never heard of this proposed amendment, why does it matter that the article is old?

      • bumbly@readit.buzz
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        1 year ago

        @wet_lettuce knew it, so therefore everybody had to have known of it. That’s how human knowledge works: one human learns it and thus do all humans.

        It is known!