Wesley Clark: Gay Rights

Gay rights is an interesting area with Clark. Not that he steps far outside the political norm on the issues, but that he is a bit ambiguous in one specific area.

As I noted, his opposition to gay marriage isn't very surprising, and he has been vocal in support of gays in a more general sense. His stance on "don't ask, don't tell" is a little confusing, though. In this excerpt from Meet the Press, he fails to give a very distinct answer to the question of how he stands on the issue or what remedy would solve its problems.

Mr. Russert [Interviewer]:In the brief you talked about combating discrimination. Many people would point to the military's policy on gays as being discriminatory. Are you in favor of "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military?
Gen. Clark:I'm not sure that I'd be in favor of that policy. I supported that policy. That was a policy that was given. I don't think it works. It works better in some circumstances than it does in others. But essentially we've got a lot of gay people in the armed forces, always have had, always will have. And I think that, you know, we should welcome people that want to serve. But we also have to maintain consistent standards of discipline; we have to have effective units.

So I think that's an issue that the leaders in the armed forces are going to have to work with and resolve.

...

Mr. Russert:So you have no problem having openly gay American serve in the the military as long as they abided by the same code of conduct that heterosexuals abided by?

Gen. Clark:Well the British have a system that--they put this in the British system. They call it--they said, "Don't ask, don't misbehave." I think the leaders in the armed forces will look at that some day.

...

Mr. Russert: That being the point, should the United States not allow openly gay people to serve in the military?

Gen. Clark: Well, I think we need to charge the men and women responsible for the armed forces to come forward with that answer.

...

Mr. Russert: But you'd look at changing that policy?

Gen. Clark: Absolutely.

The issues I have with this are a) that as the Commander in Chief, it is my feeling that he is the person responsible for the armed forces, and his leadership and guidance on this issue is imperative; and, b) that citing the British "Don't ask, don't misbehave" is a little confusing. What, precisely, does it mean?

Given his willingness to openly state his opposition to gay marriage and his equivocating on "don't ask, don't tell," I think that General Clark would not represent any sea change in gay policies. He would neither be more nor less of a friend to gay causes than any of the other Democratic nominees. For that matter, I doubt that he'd represent much of a change from the Bush White House.

For most people, that won't be a big problem: if he were openly hostile to gays, then he would have issues. A person who represents no dramatic changes right now, though, is probably welcome by the majority of voters. If gay marriage, and similar causes, though, are your most important issues, then a Clark run for president will hardly motivate you to get to the polls.

Meet the Press transcript.

Introducation to General Clark (In case you are coming to this page directly).

Posted by zombyboy at September 17, 2003 02:13 PM | TrackBack