Appealing the rulings you favor, to preserve a voter base

America Blog News had an editorial about the recent Don’t Ask Don’t tell policy that got overturned by a Federal judge. The policy, which bans homosexuals from openly serving in the armed forces, has been in place since 1992 when Clinton was in office. The author of the editorial, John Aravosis, seemed to be addressing members of the Democratic Party, rather than the Republicans. He believes, rightly in my opinion, that Obama has made several promises to the gay community, but has yet to follow through, or even take actions, to get them done. On the contrary, while Obama has promised to repeal DADT, he has ordered the Justice Department to appeal the decision that it’s unlawful, even though he is against it.

The author claims that Obama is appealing the law, because he feels that the DoJ must appeal any challenges to laws. He feels that Obama has back tracked on promises he made to people to get into office, and is now actively doing the opposite of what he has promised. The author makes several good points, showing that Obama didn’t actively push for DADT repeal to be passed in the Senate (it failed) and that he hasn’t actively done anything since its’ failure to pass. That Obama is using this as a tactic to get Dems votes in the election, (if we had more Dems in Congress we could pass this repeal) and that the President lacks the courage to push through changes with elections so close. When it doesn’t pass after the election, Obama will be “shocked” and vow to fight, to ensure that he keeps getting liberal votes. The evidence is appealing, Obama using scare tactics to garner votes, but the logic seems terrible.

It makes more since that If Obama keeps back tracking on a gay rights and doesn’t pass one major civil rights bill (he has promised both a repeal of DoMA and DADT) before next election season, he will lose a majority of the homosexual vote, and possibly the large youth vote that he got in the ’08 election. With virtually no campaign promises filled (except Healthcare reform, which was far from his original outline plan) the disparity that youth felt about politics and politicians could return. Hope was placed in Obama, that he truly was a different kind of a candidate and he motivated and excited the youth vote, but if it turns out, he’s the same kind, he’s just better at hiding it and he can’t count on those votes again.

The author is right in that Obama is definitely not taking any action on gay rights as promised, and that he definitely is holding off on pushing through major civil rights reform because he lacks the courage to stand up and act out, for fear of losing votes. I believe that by not being courageous and speaking out, he will lose even more.