Polls continue to show solid support for dumping “don’t ask, don’t tell.” Looks like a good issue for Democrats to push.
That’s the latest polling on getting rid of “Don’t ask, don’t tell” and letting gays and lesbians openly serve in the military. Support for gay marriage is still in a distinct minority. So it makes sense that Republicans and conservatives should want the debate to focus on gay marriage. By the same token, liberals and Democrats should want to argue about whether we ought to get rid of a silly, discriminatory rule that deprives our overstretched armed services, currently scraping the bottom of the recruiting barrel to meet quotas, of people ready, willing, and able to help defend us in a dangerous world.
Author: Mark Kleiman
Professor of Public Policy at the NYU Marron Institute for Urban Management and editor of the Journal of Drug Policy Analysis. Teaches about the methods of policy analysis about drug abuse control and crime control policy, working out the implications of two principles: that swift and certain sanctions don't have to be severe to be effective, and that well-designed threats usually don't have to be carried out.
Books:
Drugs and Drug Policy: What Everyone Needs to Know (with Jonathan Caulkins and Angela Hawken)
When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment (Princeton, 2009; named one of the "books of the year" by The Economist
Against Excess: Drug Policy for Results (Basic, 1993)
Marijuana: Costs of Abuse, Costs of Control (Greenwood, 1989)
UCLA Homepage
Curriculum Vitae
Contact: Markarkleiman-at-gmail.com
View all posts by Mark Kleiman