On January 21, 2009, President Barack Obama signed executive orders that promised the closing of Guantanamo, outlined policy options for the treatment of detainees, and guaranteed that the United States would stop torturing prisoners of war and would abide by the Geneva Conventions. With a stroke of a pen, he returned to us our national conscience. On 3/9/09, with the stroke of a pen, he lifted the ban on stem cell research, opening the door to medical discoveries that could improve and even save the lives of thousands of people. Remember this paragraph. We’ll be coming back to it.
The week of June 29, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann hosted Dan Savage, prominent gay activist and columnist, on his Countdown show. Dan is funny, irreverent and eloquent, and on this spot he was angry that gay/lesbian/transgendered people had gone to Obama’s LBGT event at the White House on Monday, that they had applauded his speech. Savage wants Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and DOMA (Defense of Marriage Act) repealed. ASAP. Now. Tired of waiting.
Olbermann, right in there fanning the flames, asked if Savage didn’t think the President was trying to send some kind of message about good changes coming in the future. Savage said, “He’s the President of the United States. He doesn’t have to blink out a message!”
He went on to excoriate the President for not using an executive order to stop the discharges of good, loyal soldiers who have come forward and admitted they were gay.
Gay issues; the right to work (and there is no more valuable work than serving your country or your community) and the right to marry whom you choose, are basic issues of equality. The people who argue in support of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and against the right of two gay adults to marry are bigots. Their arguments are no different than those of their grandparents, arguing that it was “God’s will” that a black woman and a white man not marry, or that having black and white soldiers in the same army would “create morale problems” and “security risks”. These arguments have long been debunked. They are the flimsy remnants of fear and hate, and about 75% of Americans, according to all the polls, already know that.
And I understand the anger. Gay campaign activists feel like they’ve been ripped off by the Democratic party before. Dems take their money, tell them to be patient, and then don’t follow through. I live in California. As a non-gay person, it was painful to watch a huge voter turnout flock to the polls to support Obama and also support discrimination against my friends. I saw the Yes on 8 ads. It’s hard to be patient when you are still suffering discrimination and have to see hate ads besides.
What I don’t get is why they don’t understand what the President is saying.
He’s not “blinking out a message.” He has said over and over what he wants. He wants legislation. He keeps saying he wants legislation.
Why legislation instead of just signing an executive order? Because Barack Obama, unlike other people, seems to have paid attention to history. He understands that at some point in the future, some other bigoted right-wing-nut could get into the White House, and at the stroke of a pen, undo previous executive orders, could undo equality.
Laws are more difficult for a President to overturn than a previous executive order.
Can he use the executive order process to reinstate, or undo discharges of military personnel? Probably. Maybe he will. We don’t know yet, because none of the test cases have made it that far yet. Should he use an executive order to overturn DADT? No.
The progressives, who are having a great time being big winners and simultaneously hanging onto their street cred by bashing this pragmatic president, act like they don’t understand this. Despite having lived through the same last eight years that I just lived through—and I am by no means a progressive– they seem to have immediately forgotten that giving one person complete control of the White House, the legislature and the judiciary is a dictatorship. And we don’t want a dictatorship anymore. Do we? Didn’t we do that, and get the commemorative coffee mug already? It seems that Obama doesn’t want a dictatorship either. He wants the three branches of government to function as they are meant to, and provide some balance for each other.
So, Dan, uh, guy? Maybe you could stop yelling at the President and send an e-mail to Nancy Pelosi, telling her that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has served its purpose, and it should be retired, and that marriage is a civil right and denying it to otherwise eligible people is discrimination.
And, Keith? Maybe you could encourage your viewers, who like you and respect you, to contact their elected representatives and demand legislation. Maybe could help them find right-leaning Dems in conservative districts that the gay community could send some of its more financially successful mover-and-shaker brothers and sisters to visit. Maybe you could recommend reaching out to the Log Cabin Republicans, quietly, of course. I know it’s hard to focus when there are so many exciting Dead Michael Jackson stories to cover, but maybe you can find some time.
Watch my eyelids; I’ll blink it out: e-m-a-i-l-n-a-n-c-y-p-e-l-o-s-i.
The way to get lasting equality is not through a symbolic but temporary executive order; not through a court decision that can be overturned or rendered obsolete. It is through law. Let’s get that law passed, and on the President’s desk. Then we’ll see if he’s truly the one we were waiting for.