Space Force has chosen the term guardians for what to call them.  As in Army soldiers, Navy sailors, Marines…marines.  What gets tricky now a days is calling Airmen, airmen. Some have said that guardians are too sci fi.  The truth is it really is not, and a space focused military force would look like science fiction until it was commonplace.  The name is thoughtful anyone can be a guardian if they have the right stuff.

5 Good reasons for a progressive and/or Libertarian to Like the Space Force

  1. We all use GPS and satellite communications. They enable us to plan more efficient routes which can save on emissions.  Thus, helping the environment.
  2. We all benefit from satellite communications not just for television. Telephone service, global internet routing, etc all depend on satellites.
  3. We all want a future where we can take advantage of the resources of space. This means we need someone with the power to enforce order in space.   A Space Force could someday do this.
  4. We all want a permanent solution to the energy needs of humanity. Having a space force could be an integral part of this.
  5. In war time we are not the only ones with a space force. Russia, and China also have space forces which could threaten our ability to have benefits 1-4.

As for the name “guardian” it is gender neutral compare it to seaman, Airman, or the one real sci fi possibility “crewman” which was used in Star Trek.  If you are a progressive or a libertarian, you want the above five things. If you want a future of limitless green energy, we will need the resources that are only available in space.  That means putting people there in larger numbers.  That means all the problems that come with us will be there.

Three invalid reasons for disliking Space Force.

  • Space Force sounds like sci fi and is dumb

The fact something sounds like science fiction does not mean it is dumb.  Much of what is now commonplace was once science fiction.  It was once science fiction that we could all talk to each other with video, and communicate worldwide with text, using a pocket sized computer.   Now we all have smart phones. 

  • Space Force is costing money that could go to stimulus checks or Medicare for all.

First of all a real progressive would know that that is not how this works at all.  Anyone who has listened to the guest that Jimmy Dore has on his show or investigated modern monetary theory would know the only thing that stops the government from funding Medicare for all or a UBI is politics.

This is the short version.  Government funding is not like your household budget.  For governments money is not scarce.  The resources government can buy with it are.  The government having the money or needing to pay it back to the federal reserve bank are not stopping that.

Therefore, the who idea that the budget for some other program stops a universal basic income or Medicare for all or a public option is completely specious.

The budget of the Space Force is about 16 billion dollars.  The federal budget is over two TRILLION dollars.  Sixteen billion out of two trillion or more is 0.8% of the US federal budget.  NASA is about the same size.  Even if money is treated as scarce it is like the money you spend on a single fast-food meal, for two, out of a 2000 dollar per month household budget.

Yes, war is a racket… it is also something that seems to be inherent in our branch of the mammalian family tree.  Even chimps do it.  It would be nice to think simply being in space means we won’t but there is no evidence for that. 

  • Trump likes it. Trump is bad. Therefore, we should not like it.  

Even if we accept this argument and pretend it is not just the ad hominem fallacy.  Consider the following.  A man named Werner Von Braun was responsible for much of the basic applied rocket science that makes space technology and all it enables possible.  He was literally a Nazi.  Like an actual member of the SS Nazi.  Yet we have NASA now, and you have GPS. 

The Space Force is not a new idea. 

Actions taken by other presidents who were unpopular in their time have stood the test of time. 

Consider Richard Nixon.  He was a very hated president.  He gave us the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act, the EPA, and many other things.  Things which only in hindsight does everyone agree are a universal good. 

Consider the Navy.  President John Adams was there when it started.  He was a hated “one term loser” as people say. 

Conclusion

So as hard as it is to believe in the long term the benefits and positives of the Space Force which are rooted in enduring historical trends will erase the mostly momentary and small-minded negatives of it.  In ten to twenty years or more no one will care what president started it.  To the extent they might even think of Trump in relation to the Space Force, it would be one of a few things indisputably done right by him.

Libertarians would oppose expansion of the millitary beyond our shores.  Consider that space is only 60 miles away from every point on Earth.  We cannot allow that to be a place where we have no defensive presence.  

Progressive people like to say that they are on the right side of history.  I ask them to think, long term, will humanity be restricted to one planet?  Will social ills just disappear because we put people in space.  Now who is thinking like Sci Fi?