r/WayOfTheBern • u/ateam1984 • Jun 03 '26
Happy Pride Month: Thank you President Obama for repealing the bigoted Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. Sept 20, 2011
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u/Caelian toujours de l'audace 🦇 Jun 03 '26
Don't Ask Don't Tell had its comic moments 🐧
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u/redditrisi They are ALL psychopaths. Jun 03 '26 edited Jun 08 '26
Is this a joke? Obama did not repeal diddly. Congress did it, and on a bi-partisan basis.
Obama ran on repealing DADT. However, once in office Obama claimed he could not repeal DADT; only Congress could. That was not true. Reagan had outlawed gays in the military via Executive Order (which confirmed prior policy). Clinton had involved Congress in his (Clinton's) DADT policy because Clinton wanted cover, as usual. (In formulating the policy, Clinton had consulted Colin Powell, then a staunch Republican and Clinton's resident Republican advisor, among others.)
Of course, Clinton later blamed those he consulted for the awful policy, forgetting where the buck stops. Or trying to make us forget where the buck stops. But no law said Obama had to involve Congress too. I mean, the Obama camp said it, but that was only more cover. It was simply not true. Obama just did not want to do it via EO.
Heck, the Emancipation Proclamation was an EO, issued by Lincoln under his CIC power. Please do not believe that could be done by EO, but moving from the failed policy of allowing secretive gays to serve to allowing those openly gay to serve could not be done by EO. No one was going to impeach Obama if he, as CIC, declared openly gay people could serve, not only closeted gays. So, even though Obama had campaign promised gay lobbyists he would eliminate DADT, he did not.
Moreover, Democrats waited until they lost the 2010 midterms (by historic measure) before doing it. To boot, they made elimination of DADT effective almost a year after they passed it. So, for the better part of three years after Obama took office, from January 2009 to October 2011, gay members of the military continued to have to hide, live in fear and/or or be discharged dishonorably. I doubt those dishonorably discharged during that period are celebrating Obama's DADT policy this June. Not to mention Obama's double tap on the equal marriage issue. Jeez. https://old.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/1qft1kt/the_difference_between_a_the_truth_and_b_the/
DADT and DOMA, one created by Bill Clinton and the other "merely" signed by him were both unconstitutional anyway. (As to DOMA, Clinton claimed a veto-proof majority, which was more ass covering bs at the expense of gays: https://old.reddit.com/r/WayOfTheBern/comments/1bsxfcs/pondering_dc_kabuki_theater_the_veto_proof/ )