Between taking steps to close Guantanamo Bay, ARRA, the auto bailouts, drawing down the war in Iraq and refocusing our energies towards Afghanistan, pirates, tackling healthcare reform, filling a Supreme Court vacancy, a swine flu pandemic, unrest in Iran, and North Korea straight up acting a fool, the Obama Administration has had a lot on its plate since it took power less than five months ago.
But a major, unaddressed issue continues to hound the Administration and its allies in Congress.
James Pietrangelo II, the former Army infantryman and lawyer whose case the high court declined to review, reserved most of his ire for President Obama instead of the court. “He’s a coward, a bigot and a pathological liar,” Pietrangelo said in an interview with TIME shortly after the high court declined to hear his appeal. “This is a guy who spent more time picking out his dog, Bo, and playing with him on the White House lawn than he has working for equality for gay people,” he added. “If there were millions of black people as second-class citizens, or millions of Jews or Irish, he would have acted immediately” upon taking office to begin working to lift “Don’t ask, don’t tell.” Pietrangelo fought in Iraq in 1991 as an infantryman, and returned as a JAG officer for the second Iraq War, before being booted out in 2004 for declaring he was gay as he was readying for a third combat tour. He was representing himself before the high court.
Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, a policy put into effect by Democrats bullied by culture warriors a decade and a half ago, has the potential to be ended by new generation of blue-bloods that control both the White House and Congress. So why hasn’t the policy been ended? From ThinkProgress:
The Obama administration has repeatedly resisted calls to suspend DADT by executive order. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs last month said that President Obama is looking for a “durable legislative solution,” and Obama himself has written that repeal of the policy “needs Congressional action.”
Many LGBT bloggers immediately criticized Reid’s comments, saying that Obama and Congress were “playing hot potato over DADT.”
So the Administration doesn’t want to touch it. Congress doesn’t want to touch it. In the meantime, gay and lesbian Soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines are left by the wayside. Even worse, they flat out are not allowed to contribute to the processes that help keep our warfighters safe abroad and our civilians safe at home. Honestly, what is the most we have to lose by committing to ending the policy? Are we afraid of the right-wing culture warriors that will retread their same unfounded talking points about unit cohesion and family values that they’ve had since the 90s? Do we honestly hope to change their minds on the issue? The vast majority of Americans support ending the policy, including most conservatives. Meanwhile, the President continues to maintain a strong approval rating and Democrats are poised to retain control of the House and Senate in the coming election cycle. Granted, the President and Congress have a lot on the plate right now, but it hasn’t stopped them from putting forth and encouraging other massive national initiatives that have significantly less public support.
I don’t mean to go on a tangent, but a similar argument about unit cohesion was made in the days of Jim Crow America. But on July 26, 1948, another Democratic president had the audacity (dare I say, cojones) to issue an executive order which effectively ended segregation in the armed forces. Upon issuing Executive Order 9981, President Truman declared:
“It is hereby declared to be the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale.”
The changes that came about from that order by no means happened overnight. In fact, segregated units still operated through the end of the Korean War. But it certainly got the ball rolling enough that men like Colin Powell, Benjamin Davis, and Kip Ward could commission as officers, meritoriously lead mostly white Soldiers in combat, and eventually become some of the highest ranking military officers in the land. And granted, ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell won’t suddenly make the military a gay-friendly institution, but it’s a step forward. The more we lose strong Soldiers like Lt. Dan Choi or Cpt. James Pietrangelo, the more we handicap ourselves in this fight. It’s not like we can really afford to let them go.
My point in all of this is Dems have more to lose than to gain by stonewalling this. The planets are aligned and now is the time to act. We’ve done a great job so far guiding this ship, let’s not ruin the momentum.
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