Rep Tauscher: “Times Have Changed Dramatically” and It’s Time to End DADT
Rep Ellen Tauscher has been getting kicked around on the blogs a bit for her stance on letting bankruptcy judges modify mortgages, but she also got in the news yesterday by unveiling legislation aimed at ending the unfair “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy in the military. Time has proven DADT to be a fundamentally unworkable compromise that reduces military effectiveness while falling far short of the providing equal rights and opportunities. She talks a bit about the issue here:
On the politics, she’s right to observe that “times have changed dramatically” and that this is relevant. But I do think it’s important to be clear that there was no past time when this was a good policy, there was only a past time when it was politically inconvenient to do the right thing.
22 Responses to “Rep Tauscher: “Times Have Changed Dramatically” and It’s Time to End DADT”
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March 3rd, 2009 at 2:58 pm
I suspect many a centrist Democrat will be more than happy to move left on social and civil rights issues as long as they can keep the status quo on economic issues. The financiers of the Democratic Party would trade DADT for carried interest in a heartbeat. Wonder what repeal of DOMA costs? private accounts for social security maybe
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Huge political winner for Dems. Good policy and good politics. The sooner the better on both counts. Now hop to it!
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:18 pm
“I suspect many a centrist Democrat will be more than happy to move left on social and civil rights issues as long as they can keep the status quo on economic issues.”
Culture war stuff is nothing but political red meat engineered to turn sheeple voters into Pavlovian dogs. Take something involving sex, religion, racial identity, etc – anything that gets the adrenaline pumping – and the sheeple check their reason at the door. In this state they’re easily jerked around so as to distract them from how they’re being economically dicked over. It works every time. The GOPocrats love this game because they could care less about these “issues” beyond the manipulative powers they have over their sheeple voters.
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Matt’s deep understanding of the psychology and culture of the military means that all Democrats should listen to what he says on this topic.
March 3rd, 2009 at 3:59 pm
“Culture war stuff is nothing but political red meat engineered to turn sheeple voters into Pavlovian dogs.”
Block that metaphor!
Also, no one who uses the term “sheeple” should ever be listened to again.
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:00 pm
“Matt’s deep understanding of the psychology and culture of the military means that all Democrats should listen to what he says on this topic.”
Did we need to have a “deep understanding of the psychology and culture of bus drivers” to end bus segregation?
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:11 pm
The way sheeple are prepared in Arabic, Persian and Indian cultures make them very tasty.
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
You mean soyent green is sheeple.
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:21 pm
OK, Steve, I’ll bite. What exactly are the dire consequences you predict will happen when DADT gets repealed?
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:28 pm
Dudes will feel uncomfortable in the showers. Also, they’ll have to worry about their buddy trying to make out with them in a foxhole. There’s nothing The Gays love more than making out with straight dudes in foxholes.
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:49 pm
according to Wikipedia, sheeple are the infertile offspring of ewes and men. The much rarer offspring of a ram and a woman is is called peeps. They are supposedly a delicacy eaten around Easter.
March 3rd, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Huge political winner for Dems. Good policy and good politics. The sooner the better on both counts. Now hop to it!
You want DADT? You’ll have to give her her anti-cramdown amendment. Straight power play.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:14 pm
Culture war stuff is nothing but political red meat engineered to turn sheeple voters into Pavlovian dogs. Take something involving sex, religion, racial identity, etc – anything that gets the adrenaline pumping – and the sheeple check their reason at the door.
This type of comment is why so many people became incensed at Obama’s “cling to their religion and their guns” speech.
What enraged people was not the fact that Obama was pointing out that the right often uses social issues to get voters who would prefer the Democrats on economic issues. What enraged people was the subtext that the social issues are unimportant, and that only the eocnomic issues ought to matter, and that anyone who voted based on social issues was simply an unthinking automaton.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:17 pm
Maybe Steve’s “deep understanding of the psychology and culture of the military” can help us understand why a poll of military personnel found that a majority was either supportive of (26%) or neutral to (32%) the idea of allowing gays to serve openly.
March 3rd, 2009 at 5:58 pm
It easy to explain:
Because black people are deficient in IQ, in inverse correlation to their penis size.
This makes not good with abstract thought, but very good with sports, music, sex and violence.
I realized this when my wife was gangbanged by three black men. They forced me to watch and play my banjo, and my wife had to bang a tambourine, which was very painful for her since her legs were behind her head.
The black penises slid in and out with perfect rhythm.
March 3rd, 2009 at 6:12 pm
We could send all the gay troops to Afghanistan, where buggery is a long-held Pashtun tradition, and send the straight troops to Iraq, where homophobia is a long-held Arab tradition. Everyone wins!
March 3rd, 2009 at 7:27 pm
I remember former LA chief o’ police Darryl Frank Gates praising the masculine virtues of his Sapphic recruits.
You can almost imagine an aged Rummy doing the same someday.
March 3rd, 2009 at 8:44 pm
I suspect many a centrist Democrat will be more than happy to move left on social and civil rights issues as long as they can keep the status quo on economic issues.
Up in the Bay, we call it the “Gavin Newsom.” Glad to see East Bay Ellen’s been paying attention.
March 3rd, 2009 at 9:12 pm
Said the 30-year-old virgin. Nuff said.
I know rather open bisexuals and men raised by lesbian couples who have been in ROTC. Something tells me the civilians worrying about this are just worrying they won’t feel manly fetishizing (as opposed to respecting) the military.
March 4th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
Matt’s deep understanding of the psychology and culture of the military means that all Democrats should listen to what he says on this topic.
Aw, you’re still sore that the military was racially integrated.
April 8th, 2009 at 9:10 pm
This is very up-to-date information. I’ll share it on Twitter.
April 15th, 2009 at 6:10 am
I noticed that this is not the first time at all that you mention this topic. Why have you chosen it again?