Don't Ask Don't Tell Upheld

With Republicans in the US Senate voting unanimously to block debate, the Senate has voted down a major military bill that included a provision allowing the repeal of the "don't ask, don't tell policy" regarding gay soldiers. "The fight against freedom remains strong in the US," says Boing Boing reader blorgggg.

• [MrJM]

  These facts notwithstanding, we must all remember the First Rule of Being Politically Cool: There is no difference between Democrats and Republicans.

  • [Ugly Canuck]

    Well, looking in from the outer darkness, as I do, I often find it difficult to tell them apart: but my American friends assure me that they instantly spot the differences.

    • [travtastic]

      One is an elephant, and one is a donkey! Choose your side!

  • [Donald Petersen]

    No difference? How about in terms of party discipline?

    The Republicans have, what, forty-one in their caucus? Compared to fifty-nine for the Dems? And yet somehow the few things the Dems manage to wrestle through are watered down beyond recognition? More often than not, the GOP carries the day simply by threatening to filibuster.

    How come the Dems utterly failed to prevent the Bush Administration and its usually-Republican Congress from doing Everything They Wanted To Do? Why didn’t they filibuster *anything* that might have been important to the Left?

    I tend to think that while the Democratic Party is composed of a fairly broad swath of the politico-ideological spectrum, from Dennis Kucinich to Ben Nelson and, until recently, Joe Lieberman, meanwhile the Republican spectrum of thought has narrowed dramatically. It seems to me that the Democratic whips have the cat-herding job, while the Republicans apparently have no difficulty at all in keeping everyone’s toes on the line. As a result, genuine centrism is difficult to find in the GOP these days… and with the rise of the Teabaggers, that’s only going to worsen.

    • [travtastic]

      You’re assuming that the Democratic establishment has intentions of supporting the left, and just has a hard time doing it.

• [alexx]

  If I remember right, the National Anthem goes:
  “Land of the free, home of the brave”

  and not:
  “Land of the free, and also The Gays”

  This is frustrating to say the least, but there are still 2 other ways this might be enacted – after the DOD report comes out in December and through the Courts.

  • [oasisob1]

    I see what you did there:
    “after the DOD report comes out in December”

• [WaylonWillie]

  The main thing is that they didn’t let Obama have a success. That appears to be the only important goal of American politics these days.

  • [travtastic]

    Sort of. The goal is to make government appear so useless that opposition to dismantling it will drop. Obama just happens to be the particular asshat in power now.

• [dross1260]

  Pride will still keep going for one’s country. All prides alike.

• [Maggie Koerth-Baker]

  A friend of mine (a queer person in the military, no less) suggested that they ought to keep the rule, but invert it.

  Instead of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” … “Get Over It, Or Go Home”. If you just can’t deal with serving alongside GLBT folks, gtfo. Here’s your dishonorable discharge. The Armed Forces don’t want any bigots.

  That’ll never happen, for obvious reasons. And it opens up it’s own whole can of worms. But I kind of like the way it puts the onus on the oppressors, instead of the oppressed, for a change.

• [moab]

  The bill wasn’t voted down, it was denied a vote by filibuster. The filibuster is a procedure that requires 60 votes to end unlimited debate and move to a simple majority vote. If the bill had made it to a vote it would have passed since it got 54 votes to end the filibuster.

  The media is not doing its job by saying it was voted down. It is stalled on a procedural vote.

• [Teller]

  Is it likely that the Dems didn’t want this – what I consider NOT the last word on the issue – added to the bonfire of the November elections?

• [agnot]

  Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is simply a sanctioned policy of dishonesty in the military.

  As I heard one lesbian officer put it, after abandoning a shining military career with an honorary discharge, straight people “come out” to those around them every day without thinking about it. Don’t Ask Don’t Tell meant she had to be dishonest with her soldiers daily to avoid the subject, the soldiers with whom she had to form a bond of trust that would withstanding “harm’s way.”

• [JD]

  Let’s hope it stays that way :P It’s probably for the best for both sides.

  • [Brainspore]

    Please clarify.

• [Rajio]

  A trip to the USA remains like a trip to 1950

  • [seanpatgallagher]

    A trip to the USA remains like a trip to 1950

    Yes, but thanks to modern technology, you can now watch us abuse each other in Technicolor!!!

    -S

• [Ugly Canuck]

  Wait…what does this, mean for that?

  http://www.mediaite.com/online/federal-court-finds-dont-ask-dont-tell-law-unconstitutional/

  Is the Senate waiting for the Appeal process to run its course?

• [dhalgren]

  You might have also mentioned a reason that this was voted down was because the DREAM ACT was also attached to this bill. I think the DREAM ACT was the major reason this was voted down. Seriously though I wouldn’t go off on a Republican rant, this is the fault of the Senators who attach various controversial legislation to a regular appropriations bill. Harry Reid I believe added the DREAM ACT to this bill, almost guaranteeing it’s failure. Not sure about how the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell part got added to the bill.

  • [Ugly Canuck]

    For those, like me, who find American politics difficult to keep up with:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DREAM_Act

    Interesting, though.

    • [Felton / Moderator]

      Ah, so this is a net win for both homophobes and xenophobes.

• [tumblingwall]

  man, GE will be pissed if Obama makes true on his threat to cancel the f-35 now.