“Achilles’ Heel”

I’m not going to write about President Obama’s State of the Union speech yesterday because quite frankly I didn’t hear anything new that had not been said before over a year ago when he was campaigning. The difference, he is in office and should stop the talking and start delivering on those promises. Let’s see what happens.

As for Gay civil rights, I think it should be apparent at this point that neither political party is going to hand them over to us. As Obama said last night, and I’ll paraphrase, the people we elected are too busy running for re-election everyday to spend time on moving the country forward. God forbid they actually started working together. The Democrats hooted and hollered at everything Obama said, taking their lead from Nancy Pelosi as to when to give a standing ovation. The Republicans, always predictable, sat with arms folded and grim faces for most of the speech. Not much indication of a bipartisan approach moving forward.

So we have basically elected professional politicians whose first priority is getting re-elected from the first day they take office. I’m not sure if the business of America is even second on their list. I miss Ted Kennedy. He knew old school politics and how to stand tough for his ideals while still partnering with the opposition. There are not many Ted Kennedys left in Washington; certainly Obama is not one of them. This is evidenced by a sixty filibuster proof majority for the past year and very little to show for it, particularly on Gay civil rights. The Democrats still have a fifty-nine vote majority in the Senate but as President Obama mentioned, are inclined to run for the hills due to the election of Scott Brown from Massachusetts. We in America have a very broken political system and many angry citizens.

I think the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgendered civil rights movement can exploit this situation. All it takes is some guts and a willingness to unite as a strong voting block. A voting block that will send a clear message that we will not support you until you deliver. Of course we need to back up those words with actions, even if it is briefly painful to us.

If we knock those who break promises to our community out of office, I bet in the very next election cycle they will remember the clout we wielded and not repeat the mistake of broken promises. Their desire to be re-elected above all else, is their Achilles’ heel. That is one target where LGBT people need to direct their arrows.


MT


[If you click on the title of this article it will take you to a petition for the Courage Campaign asking President Obama to take action now on the repeal of “Don’t Ask,Don’t Tell (D.A.D.T.)]