I have a wingnut sister and brother-in-law, who fwd their propaganda to me occasionally, which provides a fascinating window into the clever machinery of the Rovian skunkworks. Yesterday they sent me a petition to "Support President Bush: Put the Pledge of Allegiance Back in Schools!" I did not realize the Pledge had been removed, but alas these phony crises rally support for Bush for a pretend cause, when there is no real cause worth supporting. These email petitions get circulated so widely by unengaged and unthinking conservatives (who don't even spend 2 minutes with Google to fact check), that they have become a powerful uniting force on the right. It doesn't matter if it is blatantly false, because it works anyway. We saw a similarly timed and emphasized Gay Marriage "crisis," and all the uninformed and unengaged half-ass support that gave the conservatives in 2004. This is clever skullduggery. My response to propaganda on the flip(note that this was tailored to be sent out to persuade (not debate) conservative relatives, so it is not overtly liberal)...
In response to your "Save our Pledge of Allegiance" pettition supporting President Bush, I have a parent analogy.
Most parents understand that if you don't want your child to focus attention on something, you use the fine art of distracting to prevent tantrums, negative behavior, or awkward conversations in public places. Distraction can be a powerful tool when you dont want to deal with tough problems, whether dealing with children or adults.
I say this bit about distraction because the email forward Pettition for President Bush (Save our Pledge of Allegiance) is such a distracting bit of phoney silly-ness for people to circulate. The pledge was not removed from our schools.
The original pledge was written by a Boston minister, and specifically stated:
I pledge allegiance to my Flag, and to the Republic for which it stands: one Nation indivisible, With Liberty and Justice for all. - October 11, 1892
Over the next 60 years, 4 edits were made to the pledge, then President Eisenhower approved adding the words "under God" on Flag Day, 1954. So, the Pledge of Allegiance was written in 1892, but didn't have the "under God" phrase in it until 1954, when, as a result of the rise of the Soviet Union, it was added to show that we were not like those Godless Commies in Russia.
The facts: in 2002, the 9th circuit court questioned the constitutionality of the phrase "under god" in the pledge, but the same judge put a hold on the ruling as he realized the controversy of such a thing. Then on June 14, 2004, the Supreme Court threw out the case (http://www.cnn.com/...). There is no ban, not even on the phrase "under god."
So if you actually read this far, let me say why this is such a distraction. If you dont want to deal with controversial issues around governing, you make up a crisis that gets people to actively support you for other reasons. Like a parent who holds out and shakes a toy to distract a toddler long enough to prevent a tantrum. A recent example is how we get the whole country to focus on polarizing issues like gay marriage, rather than use the limited attention of the public to discuss issues such as maintaining our freedoms, limited government, healthcare reform and deficit reduction. This fake petition is yet another example of citizens being distracted by nonsense, lest we engage in real discussions of governing, such as:
·spending 300 billion dollars in Iraq so that they can elect an Iran-friendly government that is absolutely hostile to the minority, which is 600,000 Iraqi Christians
·president and attorney general endorsing illegal warrantless spying on Americans
·bad pre-war intelligence
·poor post-war planning
·unbelievable incompetence around Katrina and FEMA
·unimaginable deficits that any fiscal conservative should be furious about (letting our grand-kids pay our debts?!?!)
·Nation-building in Iraq while closing down fire-houses in the USA
·harboring officials (Rove & Cheney) involved in the CIA leak
·9/11 commission's recommendations are being ignored
·The Homeland Security budget is being spent on pork legislation (e.g., $250 million dollar bridge for 80 people in Alaska?)
·where is Osama?
·etc.
All the while, this administration has been paying fake reporters in Iraq and at our own White House press conferences to ask scripted questions and report pre-fabricated news. I voted for Perot in 1992, so I was no fan of Clinton, but I would rather be misled about sex than about matters of national security and decisions to send our troops to war.
Feel free to sign a fake petition, it is your time, and your right to do so. Just take a minute to think about it, and realize we are being shown a big shiny toy...again.
#####################
Do you find yourself both impressed and frustrated by the well orchestrated release of news by this White House? The "take out the trash day" Friday bad-news dumps are insignificant relative to the well-honed timing used by these folks. The Libby indictment should have been a death-blow, but instead, we found ourselves engaging in Monday morning discussions of the fairness of the term "Scalito," and congratulating Harry Ried on good work. Not to knock those good diaries - it just feels like we get hoodwinked again and again, and only occasionally comment on the ability of dems to govern versus repubs to campaign. We have to be ready for both content and timing to be effective.