How Progressives Can Win The Long-Term Fights They're Losing

LOADING ERROR LOADING This article is part of HuffPost’s biweekly politics newsletter. “As long as we emphasize frame over facts,” Belkin said in a recent interview with HuffPost, “we’re going to be playing small ball.” In the context of the DADT fight, Belkin said that mentality meant conceding that the majority of political and military leaders ― as well as the majority of voters ― would never accept openly LGBTQ Americans serving alongside their straight counterparts. “As long as we emphasize frame over facts, we’re going to be playing small ball.” - Aaron Belkin A key element of the campaign was the production and dissemination of research to make the case against DADT ― like the 2000 paper showing the British had repealed their long-standing ban on gays with no ill effects, or the 2006 report demonstrating that enforcement of DADT had cost the Pentagon hundreds of millions of dollars. Among them, was a former Reagan and a former Clinton official who served together on the Palm Center’s board and co-authored a widely read New York Times op-ed called “Military Tolerance Works.” That particular op-ed appeared in 2000, a time when public feelings about the LGBTQ community looked a lot different than they do today. There’s much less of a focus on building progressive messaging and building progressive power.” - Aaron Belkin Belkin has spent the last few years working on one response: A project to expand the Supreme Court, in order to make up for the way Republicans “stole” a seat when they refused to consider Obama’s nominee to replace Justice Antonin Scalia after his death.