Aria Greenberg
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/21/collins-thwarts-vote-on-dont-ask-dont-tell/?scp=8&sq=don't%20ask%20don't%20tell&st=cse
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Effort to overturn Don't ask don't tell likely to fall short
Senator Susan Collins, republican from Maine says that she won't encourage debates to continue on the defense spending bill. This bill is attached to the don't ask don't tell bill. Collins says "I cannot vote to proceed this bill under a situation that is going to shut down debate." Also, with midterm elections 6 weeks away, this filibuster that the republicans are trying to start will delay the president's pledge until next year, making him out to look dishonest with his promises. This article relates to our class because it demonstrates how competing parties try to knock each other's issues off the political agenda through voting in the Senate. The republicans are going to do anything in their power to get the don't ask don't tell issue off the political agenda because it is not coming from their party.
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Aria,
ReplyDeleteWhile reading the article, I was going through the characteristics of a public problem to see how this issue matches up. It turns out this issue is indeed a public problem because it is alterable, immoral, and the government holds partial responsibility. It is interesting how at the end of your post you mentioned that republicans would do anything to get this issue off of the agenda because it reminded me of the bottom-up approach. Not only is a bottom-up approach always to get something on the agenda, but to get it off of the agenda, as well. Because each party is taking the bottom-up approach, I'm interested in seeing who accomplishes their goal.
Elise Leppert