words words words

Yesterday at a fundraiser for the Human Rights Campaign, Obama renewed his pledge to put an end to the absurdity of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. The program has recently come under attack from an unusual source--an airforce colonel, Om Prakash, whose article citing the law's negative impact and urging its imminent repeal won the 2009 Secretary of Defense National Security Essay contest. Although this earlier turn of events might indicate an legitimate shift in the military's attitude toward homosexuals serving openly in the military, Obama's restatement of his commitment to ending the policy--which failed to present a timetable for doing so--appears to be more of the same. Liberals (or progressives, as the Democrats like to call us when they deign to associate with our ilk) have been disappointed time and time again by Obama's reluctance to push certain issues--gay and lesbian rights, the public option--combined with his apparent about-face on others (see bill, "media shield").

In some ways, of course, this is just good politics--who else will the lefty likes of MoveOn.org vote for? But, on the other hand, Obama got elected not only by appealing to moderates, but in large part by sparking the passions of people (largely of liberal bent) who labored tirelessly to convince the rest of the country that voting for black man who shares a Muslim middle name with a recently executed enemy of the United States wasn't such a bad idea after all. The longer Obama stalls on increasingly uncontroversial issues like "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," the more he risks alienating those supporters. Of course, they'll still cast their vote for him in 2012, but they won't campaign doggedly for him--and, as a leader who is (through little fault of his own) presiding over the worst recession in a generation, that's not a chance he should be too eager to take.