![BarackObama-US-Army[1]](https://queerty-prodweb.s3.amazonaws.com/2009/10/BarackObama-US-Army1-320x224.jpg "BarackObama-US-Army[1]")
Should progressives actually feel good when conservatives are also attacking President Obama on his gay agenda? While plenty of LGBTs are complaining the man isn’t doing enough for civil rights. But Catholic World Report editor George Neumayr, writing in conservative rag The American Spectator, is one of many voices on the right saying he’s doing too much. That’s curious.
“Polls consistently show that soldiers do not want the armed services turned into a laboratory of social experimentation,” he writes. “But a president who spends more time in the company of Oprah than his generals has no intention of listening to them. Whatever ‘consultation’ precedes Obama’s change to the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy, it won’t include soldiers and generals who object to its repeal. […] Symbolic of this administration’s unseriousness is that it would attach a ‘hate crimes’ amendment to the Senate’s defense spending bill this week. Will the Taliban be added to the list? America’s enemies at this rate may end up as a protected category. In the midst of conducting two wars, what is one of Obama’s top priorities? It is to make sure that someone, somewhere doesn’t say something the ‘LGBT’ community considers offensive.”
Who should take comfort in knowing conservatives think he’s gone too far: Us? Or is Obama the real winner here?
(Photo: Sgt. Jarod Perkioniemi / U.S. Army)
InExile
I just love the way the right wing tries to paint this “right of center” President as a bleeding heart liberal. The fact is they have painted him as an extreme liberal since the primary and he has consistently tried to prove them wrong by going further and further to the right. Maybe one day Obama will wake up and realize that the birthers, the death panelists, the racists, and the religious right that attack him are in fact the same people that attack the LGBT community. He cannot be everyone’s friend and pass his agenda, it’s time to start leading.
Mike L.
Wow comparing us to the Taliban.
Fitz
There was SO MUCH energy around his campaign and win from the working class, the progressives, the ethnic minorities, etc. Had he rallied for these causes instead of right away punting to the Right, he could have spurred a whole new generation of activism and volunteerism. He must have listened to Hillary too much. You know– I don’t know if he is too progressive for middle America. I just know that I will never, ever, ever vote for the lesser of two evils again.
InExile
No. 3 ….Ahhhhh….. Hillary was without a doubt to the left of Obama on social issues. I am still trying to figure out what exactly is “left” about Obama??????