I don’t have a transcript of it, but maybe I will track it down later. I was watching a segment of the Morning Joe show on MSNBC this morning when I saw Joe Scarborough express a somewhat curious point of view. In essence, he was expressing a certain sense of bewilderment that liberals would see it a good thing that gays and lesbians can now (knock on wood) serve openly in our military.
There was a lot left unsaid in what Scarborough was communicating. For example, there is the hint of a premise there that people should struggle to avoid serving in the military. You know, if you are exempt, why volunteer? But that’s an odd premise when you have an all-volunteer military. It’s also an odd premise if you sincerely value and respect military service as Republicans from Pensacola claim to.
Another thing left unsaid is that gays shouldn’t want to fight because they’re sissies. Scarborough exudes that kind of attitude, and it seems to genuinely confuse him. It’s as if he can’t picture a gay man if they aren’t giving relationship advice to Carrie Bradshaw. It’s a juvenile worldview.
But I think the main thing is that Scarborough is completely blind to why liberals and the LGBT community care about gays being treated equally under the law. It’s true, most liberals and most gays are not fighting to end the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy so that they can go themselves to the nearest recruitment center and get shipped off to Kandahar. That’s not the point. The point is to fight for what is right. It’s not more complicated than that. Gay people should be able to serve in the military if they want to, and they shouldn’t be asked to be dishonest in order to serve.
We can make better arguments than that, but that is all it is really about. That’s all the fight for gay marriage is about. It’s about treating people fairly and equally, and about not discriminating against people for things that they can’t change and shouldn’t even be asked to change.
That Scarborough is oblivious to this goes a long way towards explaining why he affiliates himself with conservatives. People who are always trying to figure out what it is in for them have a hard time understanding why you or I might celebrate the repeal of DADT even though we aren’t gay and/or have no intention of serving in the military.
