they're in the military and they're part of this country's entire diversity. and they want to be a part of their own families. and they're more traditional than you realize. >> so then began the battle you're still battling which is with conservatives. >> yeah. i think the great disappointment, the great disappointment is that this was a really in some ways a conservative argument. this was a minority group seeking responsibility, commitment, pooling resources. if you're a couple and something happens to one of you, you have someone else to take care of you, not the government. there's a really powerful conservative case for this. and so many of the republican party just never grappled with it until it was too late. but kennedy, a reagan appointee, i think you see the last strains of that moderate conservatism which is, you know, we do have this new emergent population. how do we integrate them? how do we make them part?