IN HIS State of the Union Address, President Bush spoke to evildoers and do-gooders. The evildoers, he said, would see their terrorist operations stopped. The do-gooders, he said, would see their efforts infused with federal money and programs. Let’s talk about the latter group. “My call tonight,” Bush said, “is for every American to commit at least two years–four thousand hours over the rest of your lifetime–to the service of your neighbors and your nation.” Now, it was a liberal president who announced (though he never delivered) the end of big government. Conservatives mocked this blatant untruth for a long time. But it seems to have taken a conservative president to really put an end to all talk about ending big government. Bush stated three missions for his public service plan, the USA Freedom Corps: responding to crises at home, rebuilding communities, and “extending American compassion throughout the world.” This would involve adding 200,000 new volunteers to AmeriCorps and the Senior Corps as well as doubling the size of the Peace Corps. A similar proposal has been made by senators Evan Bayh and John McCain. Like Bush’s proposal, Bayh-McCain would increase federal aid for students doing community service. It, too, would increase AmeriCorps recruits, from the current 50,000 to 250,000 over ten years. What both proposals contemplate is a massive addition to Bill Clinton’s AmeriCorps. Unlike Bush’s plan, the Bayh-McCain proposal includes no additional recruits for the Peace Corps. But it does envision a military element not proposed by Bush. The so-called 18 by 18 by 18 program would address shortfalls in military recruiting. It would pay an $18,000 bonus for 18 months of active service and 18 months of reserve duty. What the two plans have in common is an effort to seize the post-September 11 moment. “People are looking for ways to do things for their country,” say Les Lenkowsky, CEO of the Corporation for National Service. AmeriCorps (which comes under the CNS umbrella) experienced a temporary 30 percent increase in inquiries from potential applicants. This did not, however, translate into more volunteers, since the number of positions is fixed. Matt Dunne, director of AmeriCorps Vista, explains the heightened interest as part of the inward-looking reaction to “tragedy, unhappiness, and grief.” People have been volunteering in order to “help the country heal itself,” says Dunne. Lenkowsky believes this moment might be the dawn of a new era in public service. For his own generation, he says, “getting involved was a formula for aggravation.” Today, however, “we have the potential to create a new great generation.” But, he warns, “we must go beyond waving flags and singing ‘God Bless America.'” For the right, however, such an explosion in federal programs means a new philosophy of government. In fact, one of the more famous critics of AmeriCorps was John P. Walters, who is now Bush’s drug czar. In testimony before Congress in 1995, Walters criticized AmeriCorps for clumsy efforts to revitalize civil society by way of Washington. He also complained that “paid ‘voluntarism’ would have a corrupting effect on genuine charity.” AmeriCorps is still the object of conservative scorn in some corners. James Bovard, author of “Feeling Your Pain: The Abuse and Explosion of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years,” has written that many AmeriCorps members are doing nothing more than federally funded make-work and that some AmeriCorps grantee programs are simply laughable. Of course, a lot has changed since September 11. And one thing that is up in the air is conservative opposition to big government. Indeed, George W. Bush may yet remake the GOP as the party of compassion. Which means, among many other good and bad things, Republicans would end up the subject of Kumbaya jokes. David Skinner is an assistant managing editor at The Weekly Standard.
