The Left’s “Department Of Peace”: Call It A “Department Of Political Purity”
Posted on April 16, 2007
For those who have followed the shrieking leftist crowings of Illinois Representative Dennis Kucinich (needless to mention he’s a Democrat), you will be familiar with his idea of creating a cabinet-level “Department of Peace and Nonviolence”. I must admit that when I first heard of the idea, I had to exercise the utmost level of self-control not to break in a fit of incredulous laughter. That was then, before I read Blackfive’s post on the subject, which itself refers to a post by Charlottesvillain over at Tigerhawk which contains a link to the actual text of the bill (officially HR 808).
Boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, we’d be sorely mistaken if we saw this as merely another PC squeak from the Left. It’s much more dangerous than that. It’s a monstrous political cross-breed between a UN styled bureaucratic blob with teeth and a overlapping, wide ranging tool that would emasculate the very elements that make this country what it is, warts and all.
Charlottesvillain has done a very good job at focusing on the main items of the HR 808, so I hope he won’t be too sore at me for just reproducing the part of it that is relevant, straight from his post:
SEC. 101. ESTABLISHMENT OF DEPARTMENT OF PEACE AND NONVIOLENCE.
SEC. 102. RESPONSIBILITIES AND POWERS.
(a) In General- The Secretary
shall–
(1) work proactively and interactively with each branch of the
Federal Government on all policy matters relating to conditions of
peace;
(2) serve as a delegate to the National Security Council;
(3) call on the intellectual and spiritual wealth of the people of the United States and
seek participation in its administration and in its development of policy from
private, public, and nongovernmental organizations; and
(4) monitor and analyze causative principles of conflict and make policy recommendations for developing and maintaining peaceful conduct.(b) Domestic Responsibilities-
The Secretary shall–
(1) develop policies that address domestic violence, including spousal abuse, child abuse, and mistreatment of the elderly;
(2) create new policies and incorporate existing programs that reduce drug and alcohol abuse;
(3)
develop new policies and incorporate existing policies regarding crime,
punishment, and rehabilitation;
(4) develop policies to address violence against animals;
(5) analyze existing policies, employ successful, field-tested programs, and develop new approaches for dealing with the implements of violence, including gun-related violence and the overwhelming presence of handguns;
(6) develop new programs that relate to the societal challenges of school violence, gangs, racial or ethnic violence, violence against gays and lesbians, and police-community relations disputes;
(7) make policy recommendations to the Attorney General regarding civil rights and labor law;
(8) assist in the establishment and funding of community-based violence
prevention programs, including violence prevention counseling and peer mediation in schools;
(9) counsel and advocate on behalf of women victimized by
violence;
(10) provide for public education programs and counseling strategies concerning hate crimes;
(11) promote racial, religious, and ethnic tolerance;
(12) finance local community initiatives that can draw on neighborhood resources to create peace projects that facilitate the development
of conflict resolution at a national level and thereby inform and inspire
national policy; and
(13) provide ethical-based and value-based analyses to
the Department of Defense.(c) International Responsibilities- The Secretary
shall–
(1) advise the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State on all
matters relating to national security, including the protection of human rights and the prevention of, amelioration of, and de-escalation of unarmed and armed international conflict;
(2) provide for the training of all United States personnel who administer postconflict reconstruction and demobilization in war-torn societies;
(3) sponsor country and regional conflict prevention and
dispute resolution initiatives, create special task forces, and draw on local, regional, and national expertise to develop plans and programs for addressing the root sources of conflict in troubled areas;
(4) provide for exchanges between the United States and other nations of individuals who endeavor to develop domestic and international peace-based initiatives;
(5) encourage the development of international sister city programs, pairing United States cities with cities around the globe for artistic, cultural, economic, educational, and faith-based exchanges;
(6) administer the training of civilian peacekeepers who participate in multinational nonviolent police forces and support civilian police who participate in peacekeeping;
(7) jointly with the Secretary of the Treasury, strengthen peace enforcement through hiring and training monitors and investigators to help with the enforcement of international arms embargoes;
(8) facilitate the development of peace summits at which parties to a conflict may gather under carefully prepared conditions to promote nonviolent communication and mutually beneficial solutions;
(9) submit to the President recommendations for reductions in weapons of mass destruction, and make annual reports to the President on the sale of arms from the United States to other nations, with analysis of the impact of such sales on the defense of the United States and how such sales affect peace;
(10) in consultation with the Secretary of State, develop strategies for sustainability and management of the distribution of international funds; and
(11) advise the United States Ambassador to the United Nations on matters pertaining to the United Nations Security Council.(d) Human Security Responsibilities- The Secretary shall address and
offer nonviolent conflict resolution strategies to all relevant parties on
issues of human security if such security is threatened by conflict, whether such conflict is geographic, religious, ethnic, racial, or class-based in its origin, derives from economic concerns (including trade or maldistribution of wealth), or is initiated through disputes concerning scarcity of natural resources (such as water and energy resources), food, trade, or environmental concerns.(e) Media-Related Responsibilities- Respecting the first amendment of the Constitution of the United States and the requirement for free and independent media, the Secretary shall–
(1) seek assistance in the design and implementation of nonviolent policies from media professionals;
(2) study the role of the media in the escalation and de-escalation of conflict at domestic and international levels and make findings public; and
(3) make recommendations to professional media organizations in order to provide opportunities to increase media awareness of peace-building initiatives.(f) Educational Responsibilities- The Secretary shall–
(1)
develop a peace education curriculum, which shall include studies of–
(A)
the civil rights movement in the United States and throughout the world, with special emphasis on how individual endeavor and involvement have contributed to advancements in peace and justice; and
(B) peace agreements and circumstances in which peaceful intervention has worked to stop conflict;
(2) in cooperation with the Secretary of Education–
(A) commission the development of such curricula and make such curricula available to local school districts to enable the utilization of peace education objectives at all elementary and secondary schools in the United States; and
(B) offer incentives in the form of grants and training to encourage the development of State peace curricula and assist schools in applying for such curricula;
(3)
work with educators to equip students to become skilled in achieving peace through reflection, and facilitate instruction in the ways of peaceful conflict resolution;
(4) maintain a site on the Internet for the purposes of soliciting and receiving ideas for the development of peace from the wealth of political, social and cultural diversity;
(5) proactively engage the critical thinking capabilities of grade school, high school, and college students and teachers through the Internet and other media and issue periodic reports concerning submissions;(6) create and establish a Peace Academy, which shall–
(A)
be modeled after the military service academies;
(B) provide a 4-year course of instruction in peace education, after which graduates will be required to serve 5 years in public service in programs dedicated to domestic or international nonviolent conflict resolution; and
(7) provide grants for peace studies departments in colleges and universities throughout the United States.
Now take the time to go through the domestic and international responsibilities of this possible Big Brother, errr, I mean Secretary Of Peace. 99.99% (and I’m conservative here, no pun intended) of his purported duties fall into 2 categories: advice and oversight of duties that are already enshrined in other cabinet posts. None of those “responsibilities” are new: we already have a government agency that falls under the appropriate cabinet member for all the issues enumerated, from domestic violence to foreign policy.
It’s Joseph Goebbels-like propaganda meets a hippie version of Orwell’s 1984. 1984 talks about Ingsoc, and now, Kucinich and his cronies are about to attempt to serve us a a mind numbing ration of Amsoc, if we let it slither into existence.
And if you don’t believe the (barely) make-believe world of 1984 is not enough of a warning, let me introduce you to the Soviet era concept of the “zampolit” (a.k.a. “political commissar“):
The political commissars were appointed by the Communist Party to military units for the purpose of direct political propaganda, and to ensure that Party decisions were implemented. In this system, each unit had a political officer who was not responsible to the normal military chain of command, but instead answered to a separate chain of command within the Communist Party. The purpose of such a system is to ensure the loyalty of army commanders, and to prevent a possible coup d’etat. The political commissar had the authority to override any decision of the military officers, and to remove them from command if necessary. Therefore, sometimes the commissar usurped the functions of a regular military commander, but that was almost never necessary — the mere presence of a commissar usually meant that military commanders would follow their directives, and the day-to-day duties of the political commissar generally involved only propaganda work and boosting the morale of the troops.
Folks, we’re all being enlisted. Personally, this one ideological army I don’t want to serve in.
Correction: Commenter Mikkel has made one valid point: Dennis Kucinich is indeed NOT a representative from Indiana, but from Ohio (sorry for his constituents, and my apologies to all Indianans for assigning them a malignant little dwarf as one of their elected representatives). That being said, my assessment of his pending bill does not change one iota. I’m still waiting for Mikkel to justify his opinion that anything I’ve said is “complete drivel”. Now that he’s pointed to the grain of sand in my eye, he’ll have more time to consider what to do with the beam in his.
» Filed Under 1st Amendment, 2nd Amendment, Communism, News, Politics As Usual
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5 Responses to “The Left’s “Department Of Peace”: Call It A “Department Of Political Purity””
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Syndicate Me
The appeasers and their sacrificial lambs have a long history of failure. We kindly offer a list of co-sponsors of this proposed legislation for your verbal abuse via phone or emails or snail mail to oppose these misguided (restrained adjective) ‘lawmakers’ who have degraded so much they now offer the surrender before the declaration of war. To that I say, not with my tax dollars.
(click my link for the list)
Right off the bat this post has misinformation. Dennis Kucinich is the Congressman of Ohio’s 10th district, which is made up of mostly the greater Cleveland area. He is not from Illinois. Consider it a favor that, as a liberal, I am calling this to your attention because, once this error is fixed, people would have to read at least a couple paragraphs (at which point they’d hit your bad grammar and mixed metaphors) before coming to the conclusion that this is complete drivel.
Mikkel is correct, I too noted the error.
Drivel is in the eye of the beholder, reading too much KOS will make your eye react funny to real world. issues.
So to be clear, this is a proposed cabinet position that has powers that overlap existing cabinet positions, has control over military, police, political and social programs, basicly an non-elected position that sounds just like the President’s job. Don’t worry, there is no risk for abuse of this power, and I’ll be happy to take the responsiblity.
The DEPT OF PEACE its symbol should be a pink chicken and for SECRETARY OF PEACE let them select HANOI JANE FONDA.