How hard is this? I mean, ending the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. How hard can it be to simply put an end to it? The President says he’s for repealing it. Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, says he’s for repeal too. Three-quarters of active duty military personnel are for ending it, and three quarters of the general population (you know,voters like you and me) want to see it gone too. So what’s the holdup? (continued below the cartoon.)
The holdup, it seems, is just the Republican crowd that will never allow a good idea or the good of the country to get in the way of their obstructionism. I mean, for God’s sake, thirty Republican senators even voted in support of rapists to keep from voting for a bill offered by a Democrat. Really, they voted for rape. Don’t believe me? Watch the video below. (continued below the video.)
There you have it. These folks have no shame. If you will cast your vote denying a rape victim her day in court, there is nothing you won’t do. But, back to the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
Oliver North says that ending the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy will somehow result in an increase in pedophilia. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who three years ago supported repeal of DADT, now stands in opposition to repeal. Why wouldn’t he? Democrats proposed it.
On Tuesday, Senator Orin Hatch (R-Utah) was in favor of repeal, making the following statement to MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell, “I believe there are very outstanding, patriotic gay people who serve in the military and they ought to be given credit for it. And they shouldn’t have to lie about being gay.” On Wednesday he says he was misunderstood. No way would he even consider voting for such an abomination as gays serving openly in the military! Somewhere between Tuesday and Wednesday he realized that President Obama supports repeal.
We still haven’t answered the question, though. Why is it so hard to repeal DADT? The answer is that it isn’t. It wouldn’t be hard at all were the Democrats to have a little backbone, press the issue and move it to a vote. Just like health care reform. Meaningful reform has the backing of the people and the force of common sense behind it, but it hasn’t happened because Democrats have lacked one important ingredient—backbone!
It take courage, strength and discipline to survive as a gay or lesbian soldier. It takes backbone. The thousands of gay and lesbian soldiers serving in our military today deserve leaders with a little backbone too. Those who voted for Barack Obama and this democratic Congress deserve something too. They deserve what they were promised.
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It’s amazing how much foot dragging a politician can do when he or she isn’t really committed to an idea or principle. Look at the President’s performance with health care reform. He was for it, but he wasn’t really for it enough to work for it. I guess it wasn’t all that important to him except as a campaign point.