Maddow: A survey was done when we desgregated the military

Below is the only transcript of Maddow's show I could find. As it turns surveys have tended to be a precursor to progress in the military. Am I saying the survey is necessary? Not at all. But I also don't feel the survey merits pessimism that DADT will be repealed.


http://www.livedash.com/transcript/the_rachel_maddow_show/5304/MSNBC/Thursday_July_22_2010/259785/

00:26:58 >>> We have a correction of sorts to make tonight.
00:27:00 It was believed both by us and guests who have appeared on the show and franl by lots of other people that the survey the pentagon is doing to determine how members of the military feel about the repeal of don't ask, don't tell was an unprecedented thing.
00:27:16 We believed that when the military had gone through desegregation they didn't conduct a survey and were made without asking the average men and women about the change.
00:27:31 That's not true.
00:27:34 A pentagon spoerksperson said they've found evidence that the military did conduct surveys about racial integration in the military prior to changing the POLICY IN THE '40s.
00:27:46 Aimed with that clue, the folks the think progress deserve props for digging up some of the surveys that the military conducted around racial INTEGRATION IN THE 1940s, AHEAD Of president truman's 1948 order to desegregate.
00:28:02 Remember, the basic history is that in 1948, after generations of african-americans had served in separate all-black units in military, president truman, as commander in chief made the decision to end legal racial discrimination in the military.
00:28:17 Remember, this was 1948.
00:28:19 Six years before the landmark supreme court decision in brown board of education, mandating schools be integrated, seven years before the montgomery bus boycott, 15 years before martin luther king delivered his "i have a dream speech" and 16 years before the civil rights act passed.
00:28:39 Interracial marriage was illegal ç it was a very big deal in 1948.
00:28:46 The military did ask the troops what they thought about the issue beforehand.
00:28:51 The results were on the one hand astonishing and on the other totally what you would expect.
00:28:59 A 1942 survey of white enlisted men's feelings about african-americans in the air force found that, quote, an overwhelming majority of the men feel that negro and white soldiers should be separated both during and after training.
00:29:14 Check out the bar graph.
00:29:17 82% Of enlisted thought african-americans should attend separate training schools.
00:29:23 76% Wanted them in separate combat crews.
00:29:26 And 76% thought there should be separate all-black ground crews as well.
00:29:31 Here's another survey from 1947 titled, attitudes of officers and enlisted men toward certain minority groups.
00:29:38 When they say certain minority groups, what they mean is jews.
00:29:41 It was a survey of how members of the armed forces felt about serving not just with black men but jewish men.
00:29:49 Turns out they were not thrilled about it.
00:29:52 When presented with the statement, there is nothing good about jews, 86% of the enlisted men surveyed agreed.
00:30:00 86%.
00:30:01 Also, who wrote this freaking survey anyway?
00:30:05 As for the question of racial integration, 4 out of 5 white enlisted men are opposed to the idea of having negro or white enlisted men in the same unit even if they don't sleep in the same barracks.
00:30:20 You know how many officers thought whites blacks should train together?
00:30:28 A grand total of 7%.
00:30:30 7% Of officers and enlisted men thought the military should be integrated.
00:30:35 Given that, given that these were the views of the troops in 1947, what did president truman do the following year in 1948?
00:30:43 He ordered that there be desegregation.
00:30:46 He said to the military essentially, deal with it, and they did.
00:30:50 Frankly, that's the american way.
00:30:52 We're not just a democracy, WE'REBh CONSTITUTIONAL Democracy.
00:30:57 There are rights guaranteed to us all by the constitution.
00:30:59 The rights are not up for a vote.
00:31:01 The reason that's truly important and not just a romantic sepia-toned flashback to the country is people always want to vote on rights, they want to vote on minority rights.
00:31:13 Whenever you put the rights of a minority up for a vote, it almost always fails.
00:31:17 On gay rights, the issue of gay marriage has been put to a vote in 31 states.
00:31:22 All 31 of the states have voted it down.
00:31:25 Because this is america, rights are not supposed to be put to a vote.
00:31:28 That's why they're called rights.
00:31:30 That's why we have a constitution and why we struggle every day to prove we still honor it.
00:31:36 Opinions, surveys, polling be darned.
00:31:38 This is america.
00:31:39 And the rights of man are inalienable.
00:31:45 No matter what skeeves you out.
00:31:50 The pentagon is polling members on gay people servely in the military.
00:31:57 If the concept of inalienable equal rights still means something, the results of that survey will be interesting.
00:32:06 They will also be completely irrelevant to the question of whether or not this policy should and willing changed.
00:32:11 It makes it hard to do a lot of things.

was thoughtful and good reporting.

She, unlike other talk show host on her network, can and often does commit acts of journalism.

Did Lincoln take a poll of white Americans in the South to see how they'd feel about freeing the slaves before he did it? What do you think the results of that poll would have been?

Did anyone poll white Alabamans during the '50s to see how they'd feel about ending segregation?

Why is it that the BIGOTS are the ONLY ONES who get to have input into decisions of this magnitude?

But surveying the troops before making major decisions is pretty much SOP for the army. I couldn't begin to tell you how many surveys I've done throughout the years.

The point being - hate and oppose the survey all you want. If you're offended by it I fully understand. But the survey in itself is not a reason to disbelieve DADT will be repealed.

K & R :thumbsup: