Missing the moment

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Missing the moment

POSTED: Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 9:08 PM
Filed Under: Nation | News

On Twitter, AmericablogGay makes a prescient point about today's Don't Ask, Don't Tell ruling:

Log Cabin is defending our civ rts and Obama is opposing them. Is the Dem party failing to miss the import of this?

Indeed, the Log Cabin Republicans pressed this case, while the Obama DOJ opposed them, even as the president's own efforts to legislatively revoke this entrenched discrimination stymied in Congress. The DOJ has already signaled its opposition to the type of nationwide injunction handed down today, and has 60 days to appeal.

Perhaps there's some merit to the DOJ's position — that it is duty-bound to enforce the law, no matter how stupid or backward it is — but, quite frankly, I just don't care anymore. Truman, by executive order, desegregated the military at a time when that was about the single least popular thing he could have done. That took courage. Today, with polls showing majoritarian support for ending DADT and the midterms right around the corner, this court just lobbed a giant softball over Obama's plate; all he has to do to do the right thing is, well, nothing. Just let the ruling stand, whether or not Congress takes action in a lame duck session, or, well, never.

Not quite courage, but at least, the right result.

Posted by Jeffrey Billman @ 9:08 PM  Permalink | Post a comment
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