THE LOW POST: Driving Miss Clinton

The Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy was always a crock of shit, and I personally believe that it set back gay rights in this country decades. The military, after all, is the best vehicle America has for combating stereotypes. You can say all you want about the Iraq war and about the militarization of our society, but soldiers in combat -- at least what I saw -- are almost totally indifferent to race, class, even to gender now. Sure, there are cliques, but I never once heard a male soldier in Iraq bitching about having to serve in a shooting war with a woman, or with a black or an Asian or a Latino. All that shit about "we're all green" in the Army, that's not a myth. If you put a million poor and middle-class kids from the red states in military service with openly gay men and women, prejudice against homosexuality in middle America would be completely dead in about ten years.

But that's not where we are, thanks to Bill Clinton. In retrospect, Don't Ask, Don't Tell was an astonishing act of political cowardice. Telling gay men and women that they had to hide who they were in order to earn the privilege of getting shot at for our idiot military adventures was almost worse than open bigotry. It essentially institutionalized the Closet. And while everyone knows that policy's time is up, it may still linger unpleasantly for quite some time if the wrong people step into the White House after Bush. And if Hillary's latest gem is any indication, she's not one to put hopes on. The last person you'd expect to end a policy called Don't Ask, Don't Tell is a politician who makes a living not answering questions.

>> See what people are saying about Taibbi's latest column, add your own response and browse a full archive of The Low Post.