DADT

Originally posted at Citizen Orange.

The fate of almost a million lives could be decided in the next six hours.  As a voter, as a millenial, as a migrant, as a Guatemalan, I'm writing to say that I will be watching along with the vast majority of those who will determine the future of the United States of America. 

If you already haven't heard already, Harry Reid is going to offer the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act up as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act.  The Senate is scheduled to vote on taking up the Act tomorrow at 2:15 p.m.  If you haven't called you're Senator yet in the support of the DREAM Act please do so now by calling:

It is imperative that you focus on these Senators.  If you've called already, call again.  If you've called again, ask five friends to do the same.  If you've done all that, here are some more actions you can take.

If you haven't heard about the DREAM Act yet I wouldn't be surprised.  The media has largely been focused on the train wreck that is Christine O'Donnell's campaign.  But the mainstream media is missing out on one of the most suspenseful political dramas I've ever witnessed.  No one knows if we have the votes to beat the filibuster in the Senate, today.  If we don't beat it, the National Defense Authorization Act will likely have to wait until after the elections.  At that point, all bets are off. 

One of the most compelling elements of this political drama has been the interaction between The LGBT movement and the migrant youth movement.  What to an outsider might be perceived as two unrelated constituencies, perhaps even hostile to each other, have been working long before this moment to build unity and solidarity.  It is one thing to believe in the truth that we are all woven into a "single garment of destiny."  It is another to live that truth and act on it.  The migrant youth movement and the LGBT movement having been living and acting on that truth, as we all should.  My freedom is tied up with the freedom of everyone else in the universe, and tomorrow we have a chance to set close to a million people free. 

Again, the media hasn't been watching but everyone who matters everyone who will decide the future of this country is watching.  The DREAM Act has been front-page news on major Spanish language newspapers all week, and featured heavily on Spanish language television.  The U.S.'s largest and fastest growing minority, Latinos, is watching, today.  Educators and students from around the country have organized for and come out in support of the DREAM Act.  The next generation is watching, today.  Facebook and twitter have blown up with mentions of the DREAM Act, and traffic on the sites covering the DREAM Act is through the roof.  Business leaders, religious leaders, and military leaders have all come out strong in support of the DREAM Act.  If the Senate fails to move the DREAM Act forward today, we will all be watching and we won't just remember this November, but for the rest of our lives. 

The next generation isn't just watching whether the DREAM act will move forward, but whether the repeal of Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) will move forward.  Lady Gaga has galvanized youth for the repeal of DADT with her extensive twitter and facebook following in a way that probably hasn't been seen seen Barack Obama was elected.

According to a poll commissioned by First Focus, 70% of the U.S. public supports the DREAM Act.  Multiple polls show that a majority of the U.S. public supports the repeal of DADT.  Republicans, for the most part, are floating arguments about procedure.  They are saying that Democrats are playing politics with the National Defense Authorization Act.  Republicans are playing politics, too, and have used the procedure of the filibuster to grind the Senate to a halt for two years.  Playing politics is what politicians do.  The public doesn't care about politicians playing politics or what procedures are used as long as Congress does their job and gets things done.  It's time for Congress to get two things done that the majority of Americans support. 

Republicans, especially, face an important choice, today.  They can please their increasingly regional extremist base and relegate themselves to irrelevancy for a generation, or they can do the right thing and be competitive with the next generation of voters.

If we win, today, we will face an even steeper uphill battle, but we will all be watching.  Failure has not entered into my mind.  We will pass the DREAM Act and DADT will be repealed.  It is no longer a question of if, but a question of when.  The time is now and whomever stands in the way will regret it for a long time. 

As repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" gains momentum in both houses of Congress, Republicans appear to be planning to mount a vigorous defense of the policy. This in spite of a recent CNN poll stating that nearly 8 in 10 Americans favor repeal. (You couldn’t get 8 in 10 Americans to agree that the sun is indeed the center of the universe and the Earth is in fact round).

The arguments in favor of DADT have long been debunked . It serves no purpose except as a remaining vestige of discrimination. Furthermore, if South Africa and Israel allow military service irrespective of sexual orientation…why can’t or shouldn’t the US?

But all of the above isn't really the point of this post. Republicans should heed caution and tread very carefully during this debate. If they follow through with current opposition and vote en masse against repeal, they’ll further alienate young people. Unlike the political debates over healthcare or the stimulus, repeal of DADT strikes what is now a majority of Americans and an overwhelming number of youth as the right thing. Simpley because it's the right thing to do. The policy is seen as discriminatory and unjust. Supporting the status quo on this issue is standing on the wrong side of history, the consequences of such would be damning to the party’s future vitality.

For the next six months the political environment will favor Republicans. Tuesday’s primaries and special election in PA-12, have cast doubt as to the extent Republicans will be able to capitalize on voter frustration. The reality still remains however, that the majorities that Democrats now enjoy in the House and the Senate will be diminished. But over the course of the next 5, 10, 15 years as millennials become an even larger share of the electorate, Republicans current fortunes will change. By 2018 4.5 million more millennials will be able to cast ballots; by 2020 millennials will be nearly 40% of all eligible voters.

Numerous demographic profiles, surveys and studies have allowed the broader public to become familiar with the political and social attitudes of millennials. In fact the point of this blog Future Majority, is to tell the story of millennial politics from the perspective of millennials. I need not repeat what most of you are already very familiar with. You know that young people have progressive/liberal worldviews and favor Democrats by an almost 2-to-1 margin. Or that this is the most diverse generation in American history, where Hispanics are 19% of everyone aged 18-29. And that young people view discrimination as wrong whether it is in the military, the church or in the workplace.

Today's Republican Party is quixotically living in a different era, circa 1960 or 1980. The voices and ideas animating the right currently – Rand Paul, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, the Arizona Immigration law – are all disconnected from the values, concerns and aspirations of young people. For whatever its worth, George Bush was serious about immigration reform and courting Hispanic voters. Only a few years later, we were hard pressed to find a serious Republican in a leadership position that could strongly condemn the AZ immigration law that de facto legitimizes racial profiling. And now after voluminous evidence that DADT doesn’t work (we’ve discharged thousands of soldiers with critical skills and competencies) and isn’t fair nor necessary (soldiers are being asked about their sexual orientation), Republicans are still adamantly defending the policy.

It’s idiocy on moral and political grounds.

This is a historical problem for the party as well. Two generations ago, it was African Americans that left the Republican Party for good and haven't looked back. Now the party is dangerously flirting with ceding Hispanics, the LGBT community and broadly speaking youth to Democrats for the forseeable future.

Repealing DADT would represent social progress. It wouldn't signify parity or full equality, but it would mean that society is becoming a bit more just. Those who stand in the way, athwarting such progress will pay dearly at the ballot box in the not so distant future.