I'm still holding off on writing my thoughts on Bowles-Simpson and in the meantime I'm going to give another rousing talk on a different subject matter. DADT (Don't Ask, Don't Tell) keeps resurfacing in the news because some felt that there might be a chance that it would be repealed either by the Congress elected in 2008 or might get passed in the lame duck session. I'm sorry to break it to everyone, but it's not going to happen. We'll continue to discriminate against Gays in the military and the rest of society because that's just how we do things. I'm sorry to all of those who voted Democrat and thought that this might change but it's just really low on the totem poll for what elected Democrats want to accomplish. If they cared, they would have done something about it.
There are a few things about this issue that I think Democrats are really screwing up on. First and foremost, Obama left it to Congress to try to get this passed which was a huge mistake because there are a considerable number of conservative Democrats who could and did block any kind of moves on this issue. Obama seems to forget that he's the Commander-in-Chief and that he can just order the military to integrate ala Harry Truman and Executive Order 9981. He did the exact opposite of what worked last time we integrated the military in favor of taking actions that would guarantee that nothing good happened. He could very easily given the order, then let Congress work out the logistics and spared himself and a number of Democratic supporters who are also supportive of gay rights a lot of heartache.
Another problem I have with this debate is the disingenuous nature of the Republican, and Democratic, opposition to integration. Whenever they talk about what the military thinks and feels they are forgetting a key aspect of our nation. It's a civilian run military and the President, the leader of our armed forces, is in favor of integration (so he says). As such, everyone who made the preceding argument should be in favor of integration since America's top military official is in favor of it.
A final issue I have with this debate, and the fact that Democrats are not bringing this up at every conceivable instance any time this debate is had is just criminal, is why this debate is not constantly framed by stating this was how we integrated the military racially. Guess what? 60 years ago the country was exceptionally racist and wouldn't allow for the mixing of races in our military. We integrated, and everything turned out dandy. People are a lot more adaptable than we give them credit for. Anytime anyone says anything about gays in the military, the immediate response should be: "Why is it OK to discriminate against gays but not OK to discriminate against blacks and women?" Repeat that ad nauseum if necessary, but the fact that Democrats, and others advocating this approach, have not linked homophobic arguments supporting DADT with the unpopular views of sexism and racism is just poor form and strategy.
I also want to add that all of this vacillating on the subject does not help anyone. Republicans already maintain that Democrats are in the pocket of Big-Gay and use that as a wedge issue regardless of what Democrats actually do. If you're going to catch flak for doing something, even if you don't actually do it, just do it anyways to please your constituents because you're going to be hammered by the opposition anyways. This is a constant problem for Democrats that they just don't get, they're going to be crucified by the opposition anyways, so they might as well do what they're being crucified for because then they will have accomplished a political goal. Most commentators maintain that it was worth it for the Democrats to pass HCR even though it may have cost them politically, this is a similar issue.
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