Yesterday, on C-Span, I listened to an exchange of thoughts on the "military-industrial complex" between the grandson of the phrase's originator, David, and William Hartung, author of Prophets of War, a history of Lockheed-Martin's stranglehold on the nation's security apparatus.
At one point, noting that DDE's brilliant inclusion of the conceptual wording "national defense" in his interstate highway act (actually the "National Interstate and Defense Highways Act") facilitated its breezy passage by Congress, Hartung quipped, "If we had a 'National Defense Subway Act,' we'd have a better subway system," too.
That's a good thought, limitless in application. Virtually any bill with "National Defense" implanted in the title is guaranteed a statutory life, given politicians' preternatural fear of looking insufficiently patriotic, or worse, untroglodytically thoughtful.
So how about it? How about a National Defense Medicare-For-All Act? Or a National Defense Really Clean Air and Really Clean Water Act? Or a National Defense Gay Marriage Act? Or even a National Defense Less-National-Defense Act?
Like I said, the possibilities are limitless, if only Congressional liberals would get up to far-right speed by getting in touch with their softer, Luntzian, creatively propagandistic side.