Senator McCain: homophobe
As I’ve already stated in an earlier post, I will not be supporting candidates this election cycle who do not give their explicit and unwavering support for the repeal of 10 U.S.C. 654 (”Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”). Now, while I was already planning on not supporting Sen. McCain due to his role in the unconstitutional McCain-Feingold Act, he’s lost any hope of having any support coming from my direction.
He was in New York speaking at a forum on Thursday, when he was asked about DADT. Rather than recognize the fact that the policy is not workin, and that high-ranking officials are beginning to speak out against it, he issued the following statement:
I recently had a conversation with some other military leaders on this issue and their point
to me was ‘It’s working, so leave it alone. Generally, overall, it’s working.’ I don’t think there’s any doubt that there are evolving attitudes in America about many issues, including this one, but every military leader that I talk to, I say ‘Should we change it?’ They say, ‘It’s working.’ And right now we’ve got the best military we’ve ever had - the most professional, best trained, equipped and the bravest. And so I think it’s logical to leave this issue alone. I really do.
I wasn’t aware that DADT was working. Contrary to his claim, I was actually under the impression that it’s not working. Another thing that’s confusing me, is his apparent linking of DADT with the greatness of our military. Since when does the discrimination against an entire class of people have anything at all to do with how well our military performs in battle? The last time I checked, we’ve been the most powerful military power since the end of WWII, and we’ve won every war we’ve fought, with the exception of the War of 1812 (yes, we were winning Vietnam before we pulled out).
I suppose that because during much of our military’s history, blacks and women weren’t allowed to serve (or serve on an equal basis), that contributed to our successes in battle? That seems to be what McCain is telling me — that discrimination is a good thing. This, of course, is complete bunk and he knows it. His trying to link DADT with the quality of our military is a symptom of something he’s not going to come right out and say: he’s a homophobe.
McCain’s name is now off the list of potential candidates I will officially support.
March 12th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
I worked for Clinton in 92 (in spite of the fact that I’m a libertarian/independent) because of his promise to end the ban. DADT was a moronic slap in the face. I never felt so used.
March 12th, 2007 at 7:04 pm
I’ve thought about that quite a bit, and this is the conclusion I’ve reached:
President Clinton could very easily have done the same thing that President Truman did when he ended segregation in the Armed Forces and issued an executive order lifting the ban. The problem with that however, is that Congress almost certainly would have reacted by passing a bill which would have codified the military’s then-current ban into law. President Clinton would most likely have vetoed it, but I think that Congress would have had enough votes to override the veto.
Yes, DADT was a slap in the face and a breaking of a campaign promise; but I think that we’d have a much worse situation on our hands right now if he’d gone the EO route. It doesn’t justify DADT’s existence at all and it certainly needs to go the way of the dodo, but at least the previous ban wasn’t enacted into law.
Then again, maybe Congress wouldn’t have had the votes and it would be a nonissue today. Who knows?