Bill Clinton's DADT
Diana Sanchez
Presidential Debate
Something is better than nothing; this was evidently ex-President Clinton’s attitude when he drafted the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell policy”, commonly known as DADT. DADT allowed gays to serve in the military as long as they were not open about their sexual orientations. This policy proved to be a quick fix that solely masked an inherently discriminatory law. Gays were still not allowed to serve openly. President Clinton ideally hoped for gays to be able to freely serve in the military. However, this proved to be too liberal for the conservatives sitting in the White House in the 1990s. Under pressure, Clinton scrambles for a solution and in his press conference titled “Gays in the Military”, he unveils the DADT. It was critical for Clinton to persuade the public and elude that although the DADT is neither what he envisioned nor what he promised millions of Americans; it was a step in the right direction. This critique examines precisely that. It examines how Clinton uses, logos, pathos and ethos during his ceremonial announcement of the DADT, to convince the public that the DADT was for the better good of Americans. The history of “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell” policy has been a controversial topic for 17 years. “Sodomy in the military is consider a crime and this has hold truth since America’s Revolutionary war”, however an official law was never documented nor has existed. It was President Truman who sought to change this and adopts the Uniform Code of Justice. This code targets homosexuals and discharged them from the military for homosexual conduct. In the 1980s Reagan’s administration followed the same footsteps and declared “homosexuality incompatible with the military”. But as America shifted away from the conservative and traditional era of the 1950s a surge of pressure from advocates of gay and lesbian civil rights began to challenge the legal system. As a result President Clinton’s campaign in 1992
Presidential Debate
Something is better than nothing; this was evidently ex-President Clinton’s attitude when he drafted the “Don’t ask, Don’t tell policy”, commonly known as DADT. DADT allowed gays to serve in the military as long as they were not open about their sexual orientations. This policy proved to be a quick fix that solely masked an inherently discriminatory law. Gays were still not allowed to serve openly. President Clinton ideally hoped for gays to be able to freely serve in the military. However, this proved to be too liberal for the conservatives sitting in the White House in the 1990s. Under pressure, Clinton scrambles for a solution and in his press conference titled “Gays in the Military”, he unveils the DADT. It was critical for Clinton to persuade the public and elude that although the DADT is neither what he envisioned nor what he promised millions of Americans; it was a step in the right direction. This critique examines precisely that. It examines how Clinton uses, logos, pathos and ethos during his ceremonial announcement of the DADT, to convince the public that the DADT was for the better good of Americans. The history of “Don’t ask, Don’t Tell” policy has been a controversial topic for 17 years. “Sodomy in the military is consider a crime and this has hold truth since America’s Revolutionary war”, however an official law was never documented nor has existed. It was President Truman who sought to change this and adopts the Uniform Code of Justice. This code targets homosexuals and discharged them from the military for homosexual conduct. In the 1980s Reagan’s administration followed the same footsteps and declared “homosexuality incompatible with the military”. But as America shifted away from the conservative and traditional era of the 1950s a surge of pressure from advocates of gay and lesbian civil rights began to challenge the legal system. As a result President Clinton’s campaign in 1992