Rachael Maddow Calls Out Obama’s Lack Of Guts on Don’t Tell Policy

I’m not gay. I did not serve in the military. Therefore, when the discussion focuses on the military’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy I defer to others more knowledgeable than myself.

Rachael Maddow, a proud lesbian who has her own show on MSNBC, may be the most visible proponent of gay rights in our political culture. On her Wednesday night show, she took President Obama to task for foot-dragging on his campaign pledge to end the DADT policy enacted by President Clinton. She concluded by saying:

“That would take some guts.”

Liberal Democrats, like Maddow, are challenging the president on many fronts to the delight of Republicans. Most progressives recognize that Obama is doing the best he can. Others don’t.

Maddow did offer the best the gay community has to offer serving their country seen in this clip and this transcript from her Wednesday show.

For those of us who do pay attention occasionally to the DADT policy, I personally think it should be abandoned. There is enough evidence the military does not administer it fairly.

From my perspective, and this is total conjecture, allowing gays in the military will never translate into a San Francisco Gay Pride Parade. That seems to be the chief fear among homophobia critics. Their comrades in arms would never tolerate such an extreme.

It may have been a politician or some religious anti-gay sect I once heard use an example of a gay and straight in a fox hole ducking enemy fire. The premise was the gay putting the make on the straight. Oh, really?

A more serious and plausible argument is that gays would lead to morale problems in military units. My translation: The straights by military regs would be prevented from beating the crap out of the gay aggressor.

The group of outed gays Maddow has brought to her show over the past year indicate gay officers do not have discipline problems with their platoons and squads in combat missions. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened.

Our military is a disciplined microcosm of our society. When President Truman put a gun to their head to racially integrate the armed services, they obeyed.

Historically, the military has a Judeo-Christian moral hangup when it comes to sex. As a youth of 22 and drafted before I flunked the physical rendering me 4-F, my college buddies told me the Army would kick you out if you were caught masturbating. If that were the case, there would be no men left in the military that survived basic training.

My Uncle Joe Ellsworth served in World War I. He told me the biggest problem facing his combat unit in France was contracting venereal disease and not fighting the German army.

In World War II, the Brits complained the U.S. troops were only good at fighting between their legs than with their brains.

After World War II in Japan and later in Korea, one of the great censored stories was U.S. troops impregnating the native females and leaving their children ostracized in Asian society as outcasts.

My point in all this rehash of history is that straights in the military pose a greater threat of devious sexual behavior than the gays could ever accomplish. And, no, I don’t know the incident rate of gay military contracting AIDS if that’s your counter argument.

Rachael Maddow should be congratulated on taking the lead, goosing the president to fulfill a campaign promise and do what is right.

Barack Obama has taken it upon himself to carve out an ambitious agenda and admittedly Don’t Ask Don’t Tell is not his No. 1 priority. He is, after all, president of all Americans and not just those in the progressive wing of his party.

Even though DADT is a moral issue, the homophobes have pushed it as a political one where fear trumps reality. That’s the world we live in and never sits well with the impatient.

(Rachael Maddow Photo courtesy Google images)