By Douglas V. Gibbs
Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host
God and Patriotism are obstacles to the goals of those who seek to overthrow the United States Constitution. As a result, the hard-left progressive loonies repeatedly target the Pledge of Allegiance. They are determined to ensure that the Flag Salute is hidden from view, and removed from public schools. I’ve heard arguments against the pledge that include that it incites racism, that it is an oath to the white supremacist patriarchy, can be a direct cause of division between children and even adults, that the Pledge promotes bullying between kids who recite the Pledge and those who do not, and it can “make immigrants feel bad” because it forces them to turn away from the pride they may hold regarding the country they came from. When I was a kid it was mandatory to participate in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, unless you had a religious reason prohibiting you from participating. Since my childhood days the educational powers-that-be have made reciting the Pledge of Allegiance voluntary, and today’s teachers largely advise against it, or have eliminated the Pledge, and even the presence of the United States Flag, from their classrooms altogether.
The Democrats and their leftwing allies have compared the Pledge to loyalty oaths used in Nazi Germany, or claim it promotes dangerous overtones of division that is reminiscent of McCarthyism and xenophobia. The opponents of the Pledge of Allegiance argue that it has no educational value, disrupts the learning experience because of the division it creates, and promotes a militaristic set of principles that have no place in the classroom.
The irony is that the Pledge of Allegiance was indeed written to be a loyalty oath by a socialist who aimed to use it to spread nationalism (love of government/a belief that all powers should be consolidated under the umbrella of the central government) across the United States.
Originally, a salute, similar to the Nazi salute, was used during the reciting of the Pledge of Allegiance. The salute was changed to a hand-over-heart gesture when Nazi Germany used a similar salute, giving the original salute ominous insinuations of totalitarianism and genocide.
The phrase “under God” was added by a bill signed into law by President Eisenhower on June 14, 1954 (Flag Day), a decision largely driven by the lobbying of the Knights of Columbus, as a means of differentiating America from the “godless” Communists of the USSR.
President Benjamin Harrison ensured Bellamy’s Pledge was first used in public schools on October 12, 1892, during Columbus Day observances.
In 1923 the National Flag Conference called for the words “my Flag” to be changed to “the Flag of the United States”, for the benefit of new immigrants. The words “of America” were added a year later. The United States Congress officially recognized the Pledge as the official national pledge on June 22, 1942.
The Pledge of Allegiance, which was originally designed to be a socialist attempt to head America in the direction of tyranny, through the years came to be a patriotic recitation that many believe the Founding Fathers would be proud of.
It is truly amazing how America, with our exceptional spirit of liberty, can even turn something originally created to destroy us into a beloved show of patriotism.
Even more interesting is that originally socialists wanted the Pledge so that America may be turned into a nationalistic nation. But the goodness of America changed the Pledge to represent something else – What was meant to be a national socialist salute became a patriotic pledge that resides close to our hearts.
Now, after patriotism has changed the socialist Pledge into a thing of patriotic pride, the Left wants to eliminate it.
That all said, I want to remind everyone that a pledge is not something that suddenly uniquely appeared during the late 1800s. The Founding Fathers provided us with the original pledge, at the end of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. In that pledge it was to each other, rather than to a flag.
“With a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
— Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary
