Is Lady Gaga A Better Politician Than President Obama? Don’t be Stupid

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Most of us have used public transportation as a means of traveling before. Undoubtedly you’ve witnessed an incident on a mode of public transportation (Metro, subway, bus, etc.)in which one person or party was either breaking the law or just being a general nuisance to everyone else. Perfect example is Soulja Girl on the Atlanta MARTA. Most of us have seen that video. A lot of us watched it and thought “If that had been me, I would have done something about her…” We say that as a person watching it from a far but truth is, many of us have been in similar situations (maybe not as bad) as that and we’ve done nothing. A group of unruly teenagers gets on the bus, cussing and fussing and being a general disturbance and what do most of us do? We turn up the volume on our headphones or bury our noses further into our newspapers. How do we justify it?

“Well…it’s really none of my business”

Or

“I would say something but I’m busy and have my own stuff to worry about.”

There’s a reason we seek out and recognize those who put others before themselves; it’s not the norm. It’s unfortunately an aberration. Most people seek to avoid conflict and only care about things that immediately impact them. I know some people don’t want to admit that but I think it’s key to understand. Particularly when an issue like Don’t Ask Don’t Tell (DADT) comes up.

Yesterday a test vote on DADT failed to pass in the Senate. The GOP threatened to filibuster and the Democrats basically caved. To be honest, it represented a sad day in America. There’s no logical or justifiable reason why gays can’t openly serve in the military. Any reason given is nothing more than offensive bigotry or discrimination. Period.

But I don’t want to discuss why DADT is wrong. I want to address why it’s “taking so long” and why I think some liberals are being unfair at laying blame for it not being immediately repealed at the feet of President Obama. See, it comes down to the typical human behavior I talked about at the beginning of this post. DADT is the woman in the back corner of the Metro car that is being mugged while most people around pretend like they don’t see what’s going on. There are 3 groups in this Repeal DADT debate:

1. The Opponents of Repeal – The bigoted assholes that treat gay like a disease and think our solidiers care more about the sexual orientation of their bretheren than the bullets flying over their heads

2. The Advocates for Repeal – They’re passionate, they’re fighting the good fight and truth and justice is on their side.

These first two groups are the loudest. These are the groups you see in heated debates on TV and at protests. But here’s the reality: These are the vocal minority. Which leads me to the 3^rd group:

3. The Indifferent

The indifferent don’t care about DADT. I’ll be honest, I believe most of them believe gays should be allowed to serve in the military (Hence why poll numbers show more people support repeal). But since this issue really has no direct impact on their lives, they would rather see their Congress person deal with something else. These are the people who turn their iPods up or look the other way when they see someone being mugged. In a way I can’t blame them. If you’re struggling like most Americans are to make it in this economy do you care about gay rights? You might think they should have equal rights but you’d probably write your Senator/Representative about you not having a job before you wrote about gays not being able to serve openly in the military. Since most Americans are more concerned with the economy and jobs, these Senators and Representatives have no problem putting DADT on the back burner. Hell it’s even gotten to the point now that if a politician does try to address this issue, they’re criticized for “taking their eyes off the economy.” It’s not fair but that’s the reality.

And this is the issue. Most average every day Americans don’t care enough about repealing DADT to push their Senator to do better. And that means these old white guys with antiquated “boys club” views, get to continue supporting discrimination or at least ignoring it. This is the fundamental problem with what’s wrong with the system.

Instead of understanding that fundamental problem though, some Liberals are throwing hissy fits and figuratively burning President Obama in effigy. I read this article on Mother Jones and you can already tell from the title that it’s written by someone who doesn’t really understand what’s going on. Reading this article that makes a claim that Lady Gaga has done more for repealing DADT and gay rights than President Obama is laughable. It compares an entertainer who has no real responsibilities to the President of the United States. Lady Gaga can go and protest all she wants about DADT needing to be repealed. Her supporters and those who actively fight for DADT repeal will love her for it. But the Mother/Father/Husband/Wife out in the MidWest, who is trying to feed their family after losing their job 1. Doesn’t know who Lady Gaga is and 2. Still doesn’t care about DADT. And since those are the majority of people in this country, the President has to put the majority of his focus on the issues that they care about so that he can actually do things like get DADT repealed.

President Obama has to run a country. He doesn’t have a magic wand he can wave to fix everything people want exactly how they want it and when they want it. Truth is, nobody can. He brought us Health Care Reform at a time when most in the country wanted him to focus on the economy and no matter how much he tried to tie the two together, the majority didn’t buy it. In addition to stimulating the economy and getting people back to work President Obama also has immigration reform, energy reform and education reform to focus on in the immediate future. He’s also doing with wrapping up two wars. If he gets reelected, liberals are going to want him to start pushing to expanding Health Care Reform to include at the very least a public option. All this is being asked of him while his poll numbers sit around 50% or less. So, less than 2 months before the midterm elections the unemployment rate is at 9.6% and some Liberals want him to wade waist deep into the DADT debate? Hate to break it to you but its political suicide. Most Americans care about jobs and the economy, not DADT. And since this country’s government is “For the People, By the People”, he has to go with what the majority want him to focus on.

The article makes several ridiculous claims and ignores basic logic when it comes to politics. Take this line:

While Obama was raising money for Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate Joe Sestak, who trails in the polls, Gaga was in Maine, crusading for DADT repeal. The previous week, she had created a YouTube video addressed to the whole Senate that urged repeal. At the time of the vote on Tuesday, it had nearly 1.7 million views.

Do these idiots understand politics? Lady Gaga’s “crusade” in Maine garnered exactly zero votes in the Senate. President Obama raising money for Joe Sestak is an attempt to hold onto a Senate seat that grants the holder power that neither Lady Gaga or President Obama has which is an actual vote on the Senate floor. You tell me which holds more power: An actual crucial vote in the Senate or a rally/Youtube video that is popular among people that already support a cause but doesn’t bring anyone new into the fold? Yeah one is sexier but just because it’s sexy doesn’t mean it’s effective. Also, do you know what the President was doing last week while Gaga was creating a Youtube video? He was out talking to Americans about what his economic policies are and hammering the Republicans for being obstructionists. But I guess that doesn’t really matter.

Yes it’s horrible that civil rights have been politicized and we can’t just snap our fingers and have it repealed. In a way it’s actually quite depressing. But let’s be realistic here. Sure Obama’s pick for Marine Commandant seems like a jackass for not supporting the repeal but his Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and his Secretary of Defense both support the repeal (Admiral Mullen even went on Twitter to state it again). You have one of the most conservative organizations in the world (the US military), cowardly or bigoted senators and an indifferent public. It’s tough to get something like this done when you have to maneuver around the confines of a system like the one we have. And before you say ‘Well he should just make an Executive Order’ please understand that Executive Orders aren’t the end of the conversation. Obama’s Executive Order dealing with stem cell research was challenged in court and halted stem cell research. Two days after taking office, President Obama signed an Executive Order closing Guantanamo Bay. Guess what? It’s still not closed? Why? Because Congress won’t vote to fund the closure. Same thing could happen with a DADT repeal. Congress is going to have to fund full integration of gays in the military. It’s not just as simple as saying “Okay they can serve” and then walking away. Are we going to allow benefits for their families, housing for same sex couples, funding for training, transgenders,etc? The answer to all those should be ‘Yes’ but that also means funding that has to be approved by Congress and guess what? If Republicans take over, it’s not going to happen. It’s also why that commission to look into repealing DADT that was panned by some Liberals was created; to look into the logistics of what needs to happen so that gay service men and women have the full support and rights as their straight fellow soldiers. But again, those are facts and details some who would rather shout and scream don’t want to see.

I understand some of these Liberals are upset at how slow moving this country is on a topic that should be a no brainer. But this is America and unfortunately this is how things work. Taking away someone’s civil rights is easy (See: The Patriot Act), protecting them though isn’t. It’s ass backwards but it’s reality. I wish Liberals would learn the lesson from the Prop 8 battle in California. Advocates for gay rights were very vocal and flashy with rallies by celebrities and big protests. While that was going on though, conservatives stealthily went about making sure they actually got the votes they needed by appealing to the voters. We see the result. That’s what Liberals need to do now. Instead of complaining that Obama isn’t doing enough, they should be focusing on motivating every day Americans to put pressure on the Senators that can actually vote to repeal DADT. Instead of superficially looking at the theatrics of a pop star rallying for a cause, we should be looking into how we can get every day Americans who really don’t care about this issue to put pressure on Congress to act. Because at the end of the day, in order for DADT to be repealed, Congress is going to have to act. Throwing hissy fits and claiming that the President “Doesn’t care about Gay People” is only cutting off your nose to spite your face. See the forest for the trees people.

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Kriss believes that if uneducated idiots like Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh can make a living spewing hateful, untrue fantasies, then damn it…he should be able to be a truthful asshole for a living. Kriss has been diagnosed with a severe allergy to stupidity and people that irrational decisions. He likes to point out the fools on both sides of the aisle, be it democrat, republican, black or white…it doesn’t matter. Kriss is also the creator of TheInsanityReport.com and host of the award winning Insanity Check Podcast.

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