Posted on 12/19/2010 8:43:08 AM PST by Comparative Advantage
The military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy regarding gays in the military is over. The lame-duck Senate passed legislation ending the policy today by the overwhelming margin of 65-31; all that awaits is President Obama's signature, which is a certainty. The legislation couldn't have passed without Republicans, including the Tea Party insurgent Scott Brown and Ron Kirk, who won Obama's old Illinois seat in November. It fell to the doddering old war hero and loser of 2008, John McCain, to argue against the policy (and McCain's position was undermined by his wife's and his daughter's public opposition to DADT).
The end of DADT will be hailed as a groundbreaking achievement, like the racial desegregation of the military in 1948. But race is an involuntary characteristic that becomes irrelevant so long as the minority service member conforms to the military's behavioral and performance norms. Proclaiming one's sexual orientation and acting upon it is voluntary, not involuntary. Thus, homosexuals will be given not equality, but preferential treatment, based on chosen behavior. Why, then, draw the line at homosexuality? Why should the military discriminate against service members who announce proclivities for transsexuality, polygamy, bestiality or pedophilia?
What will be the effect of the end of DADT? The short-term effects will probably be minimal. The military won't be overrun by homosexuals anytime soon. It's unlikely that very many gays, who constitute a tiny fraction of the population, want to serve in the military anyway. But the cultural shift in the military will be dramatic. The military will be forced to deal with issues like anti-gay discrimination (real or imagined), how to deal with transsexuals, gay marriage, and benefits for gay partners. There will be gay affirmative-action quotas, gay cliques and subcultures, and you can be sure that in the future, there'll be some gay equivalent of the "Tailhook" scandal. A military that is in the process of losing it's second decade-long war in Asia to ragtag insurgents needs none of this. But the military, with its "can-do" ethos, will deal with it.
The consequences for cultural conservatism are much more acute, though. Repeal of DADT means that homosexuality will officially no longer constitute "conduct unbecoming" of a professional soldier. This amounts to a de facto sanction of homosexuality as normal and acceptable.
With the repeal of DADT, cultural conservatives will no longer control any institutions in American society. The military, the last bastion of cultural conservatism to which Americans rallied en masse after 9/11, has now been conscripted by the Left. The military is the final institution to fall in what Roger Kimball described as the "Long March" of cultural Leftism through America's institutions that began in the Sixties. The academy, the churches, the courts and the government have long since fallen.
In the 30 years since the election of Reagan, cultural conservatives have failed to overturn Roe v. Wade, suppress pornography, stop gay marriage, or make a serious dent in the use of illegal drugs. Conservative activist Paul Weyrich noted that Clinton's high public approval rating in the wake of the Lewinsky sex scandal meant that a "Moral Majority" no longer existed in the U.S.
Polls indicating overwhelming public support for ending DADT reaffirm that Weyrich's observation was surely correct.
They haven’t infiltrated my mind or heart.
Mental institutions.
That was the plan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_iH1GhM2j8
There will be awful problems. The gays will push and push for some “event” showing discrimination.
a little premature, I think.
Are there any institutions left that the Left has not successfully infiltrated?
Institutions seem to be crumbling left and right ( no pun). People will have think for themselves. Is that a bad thing?
I am grateful to be nearing the end of my career.
OR
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25Qhbdijv5Y&NR=1
Of course, they were mocking the military. The left never understands the true damage that they do.
Ding ding ding, we have a winner!
December 18, 2010, a day that will live in infamy.
The military is all about singularity and cohesiveness. The unit principle. Homos by nature demand attention, energy and special treatment simply because they bum each other. They will draw all energy and resources away from the general population. They will cause numerous problems for the rank and file and make a public issue of it to politicize every complaint and gain even more ‘rights’. SICK
The Progressives destroyed the finest military on earth without a single shot being fired.
The author might have tried to get the name right. It's Mark Kirk.
I thought the implementation of DADT was pro-gay.
Have we forgotten what the national reaction was when the first official act by Bill Clinton was to implement this policy?
Why is the repeal of a pro-gay policy considered pro-gay???
Are judges and juries now supposed to interpret the law?
or what people “Think” the law means?
Quite an unfortunate choice of words in the article’s title.
Exactly right. It's the acceptance of the false analogy between race and sexual orientation that bothers me the most about this. It injects a false premise into our public thinking and I'm not not sure what the unintended consequences of that are going to be, but they can't be good.
We’ll never win by giving up. The fight continues with each and every one of us.
I don’t expect it to be easy and I figure its going to take the rest of my life.
It was a step in that direction, but with gays it will never be enough. It's all about incrementalism with them. They won't stop here....it will never stop until homosexuality is deemed superior to heterosexuality.
In the 30 years since the election of Reagan, cultural conservatives have failed to overturn Roe v. Wade, suppress pornography, stop gay marriage, or make a serious dent in the use of illegal drugs. Conservative activist Paul Weyrich noted that Clinton’s high public approval rating in the wake of the Lewinsky sex scandal meant that a “Moral Majority” no longer existed in the U.S.
Polls indicating overwhelming public support for ending DADT reaffirm that Weyrich’s observation was surely correct.
_____________
this battle was not last with yesterday’s vote. THis battle was won with the popularity of “Will and Grace” (as an example) and the slow, intentional, “normalization” of homosexuality in music, tv, plays and movies. Since the day when a “gay” character was scandolous, now even kids tv on Nick and Disney has openly gay characters, even young teenagers.
Popular media and culture has historically been manipulated to promote progressive agenda. We have come to accept sex outside of marriage, unwed motherhood, divorce, adultery, socialism, atheism and more because we have been saturated with TV and movie messages that things are normal. It happens slow and early on.
I don’t expect victory in my lifetime. That doesn’t excuse me from the fight.
It’s been said that f*cked up families are messed up in a thousand different ways but happy families all do it the same way. I’ve always thought it’s an interesting way to look at Liberalism, Multiculturalism vs. Natural Law and Constitutional Conservatism. Two completely opposing approaches to life.
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