Ask the Experts : Are you surprised ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ was not repealed?
A district judge ruled earlier this month the U.S. military’s ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ policy was unconstitutional. This, along with the fact that some of the public has been against the policy for some time now, seemed to be signaling the policy’s end.
But that end did not come last week, when the Senate failed to pass a bill that would have resulted in the repeal of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell.’
The bill needed 60 votes to pass the Republican-led filibuster, but it only received 56 votes, according to an article published in The New York Times on Sept. 21.
Every Republican who voted on Tuesday voted against the bill, with three Democrats joining them.
The House of Representatives has already passed its version of this bill, and the Obama administration stands behind it.
In this highly contested midterm election year, political experts say every action taken by senators up for election is so scrutinized that every vote becomes a purely political decision, making it difficult to pass some more controversial bills like this one.
The Daily Orange asks the experts: ‘Are you surprised the bill that would have repealed ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ didn’t pass the Senate?’
Meet the Expert: Kristi Andersen, professor of political science
‘I’m not surprised it didn’t pass. It was predictable, politically. You can argue that both the Democrats and Republicans were just playing to their bases. It is likely that it will happen later in the year after the elections.’
Meet the Expert: Thomas Keck, professor of political science
‘The American public supports repeal, most people in Congress support repeal, the president supports repeal; it’s only a matter of time. The policy is on its way out. It’s going to be repealed in the near future.’
Meet the Expert: Robin Riley, professor in the department of women and gender studies
‘Some of these politicians like to hang onto these controversial issues. Rather than do something that makes sense, politicians sometimes do things that don’t make sense to prove their conservatism.’
Published on September 28, 2010 at 12:00 pm
