But the sad truth is: he is refusing to take any responsibility for his clear refusal to fulfill clear campaign pledges on the core matter of civil rights and has given no substantive, verifiable pledges or deadlines by which he can be held accountable. What that means, I'm afraid, is that this speech was highfalutin bullshit. There were no meaningful commitments within a time certain, not even a commitment to fulfilling them in his first term; just meaningless, feel-good commitments that we have no way of holding him to. Once the dust settles, ask yourself. What did he promise to achieve in the next year? Or two years? Or four years? The answer is: nothing.
And you know what? Sully's right to do so.
Obama made campaign promises, and has done basically nothing to meet them. This has clearly been a political decision, and Obama likely figures he has enough fights on his hands without opening up another front to get DADT or DOMA scrapped. But it means that if the GLBT community wants to see movement on those issues, they're going to have to do something to force the president's hand.
Which of course brings me back to my own personal issue, the lack of any attempt to undo the horrific damage done by Cheney et al when they turned the US into a torture state. I can't help but see the parallels between that and this. It's really starting to seem that someone, somewhere, is going to have to force the government's hand to get them to mount a real investigation and real prosecutions.
The question is who, and when, and what it will take. And whether I personally have the courage to participate in that effort.
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