America's Future Foundation

This week, both the editorial columns in both the New Republic and the New Yorker are demanding that Barack Obama demonstrate his commitment to gay rights by revoking “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” so that gay men and women can serve openly in the US military.

The editors at both publications seem to have forgotten the conventional wisdom of just a few months ago: Don’t make the same mistake that Clinton did in his first hundred days; Don’t define yourself by taking sides with liberal activists against the military, especially not when we still have two wars to fight.

Full of indignant demands for the President, neither editorial even seems to consider whether an aggressive effort to get rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” would threaten the success of so many other liberal initiatives supported by the New Republic and the New Yorker.

As a Republican, I just don’t get where these editorials are coming from. Are you guys trying to do us a favor?

As an advocate of equality, I also don’t get where they’re coming from. Why is it so important right now to get rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”? It has real flaws, but it’s lasted for 16 years. Wouldn’t it be a heckuva lot smarter to take a gradual approach that first builds consensus within the military rather than imposing change from outside?

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