Thursday, June 13, 2013

So How did an Answer on a Random Questionnaire become an Official Promise?

I'm really conflicted with this whole 'Obama promised to sign the Executive order' notion.

For awhile, gay activists have been pushing this idea that Obama promised to do this. When I heard this, I was started searching for news clips to see if I missed anything, but what I found was the real gag.

This whole thing is based from a random questionnaire he did when he was a candidate. See below:

This was from the Houston GLBT Political Caucus back in 2008.

Now, many people consider this a promise. I'm not so sure about that. Before I begin, I want folks to know that I support ENDA wholeheartedly. But I'm not feeling this signing of an executive order to only fix a part of the problem. An executive order should fix all of it, not a piece. I would rather President Obama to sign an EO for ENDA complete. But back to this promise thing.

Since when did a random questionnaire become the golden document of the GODS? I'm really confused by many activists who claim this questionnaire as a promise. A promise to me, is when I hear someone say, I WILL DO THIS or it is in word for word format.

For example, if the he signed a document that said, I WILL SIGN AN EXECUTIVE ORDER to do whatever and signed it as President, then you got me. I'm all in.

But this stuff here is murky and a bit problematic. When President Obama said he wanted to do this through congress, I was fine with that. Remember DADT? It worked then, it can work for ENDA. And let's be clear about EOs. An EO can get wrapped up court for years, unavailable to the very people it was made for.

It can also get taken away y the next president. You may think, who would do such a thing, but you never know these days.

In all, I want ENDA to get in place. But I also want us to not blur the lines between questionnaire answers and real promises

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

The fact that he got DADT repealed and has now come out PUBLICLY supporting marriage equality is remarkable enough.

Sure we need a Federal ENDA but it's congress that should pass it. And if the Republicans continue on the course they're on now, we'll have Democratic majorities in both the House and Senate come 2014. So the President will have two years to push his agenda again.

Tyler Monticello said...

If truthspew really believes the Democrats will win back the House next year then he needs to go to a proctologist and get a brain exam.

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Viktor is a small town southern boy living in Los Angeles. You can find him on Twitter, writing about pop culture, politics, and comics. He’s the creator of the graphic novel StrangeLore and currently getting back into screenwriting.