Judge Roy Moore and President Donald Trump are now aligned, which beyond political expediency stems from historical forces during the Cold War with atheistic communism, when Americanism was “officially” defined as both “trusting” and “being under” a single deity, tacitly understood to be the Judaeo-Christian God. While even among political conservatives, Judge Moore’s Christian dominionism seems too extreme, by becoming part of the fabric of Americanism, it paved the way for both Roy Moore and more meaningfully, Donald Trump’s presidency.
While most of us can navigate their world just fine with this contradiction, it happens to mean more to me, as I will describe here.
Several years ago I was appointed to my city’s Traffic and Public Safety Commission, and was thrust into the cauldron of local politics. The city of Encinitas California is a prosperous, almost all white enclave on the North Coast of San Diego County. Gentrification has slowly eliminate the small barrio, the community of Mexican ethics who cashed out, and now is made up of upper middle class communities. I live in what has become the lower cost area about three miles from the ocean, where you can still pick up a small house for under $700,000, compared to three times that amount in silicon valley or right near the ocean.
To be appointed to this committee at the time was easy, as it had just been expanded to include the police agency, in this city’s case contracted out to the Country Sheriff’s department. I would have said “oversight” of the police agency, but one long time member made it clear that this was not our responsibility. Yet, we did have a top officer at the meetings who enjoyed when I engaged him on issues after the meetings. There had previously been a case of this force brutalizing a Democratic meeting at a private home, dragging some attendees away, for which they paid considerable damages for their behavior. So, a bit of oversight would not have been out of place.
At my first meeting I learned that the recitation of the Pledge was rotated among members, but the woman who is now the Mayor of the city, kindly took my place. So, that was on the back burner and I simply stood during this opening ceremony with my hand over my heart. There were some genuine issues that came up, one being common among all municipal unions in California. Under the guise of just increasing their pension by a paltry 1%, they now have an amazing sweetheart contract. That one percent, was actually 50%, changing calculation of their pension from two to three percent a year, so a firefighter or police officer could retire after 30 years, often at the age of fifty with almost full salary for his remaining life expectancy of some 40 years. Our fire department is mostly now is an ambulance service, so we are in effect paying these EMTs some triple the going rate. But you can be sure they have disproportional political clout to ensure this will not be revised, even though the proposal I endorsed would be phased in not to take effect until current employees retire.
I went against the then City Manager to bring this issue to the council, and became a hero to some, but the personal stress was beginning. I’ll skip the others, and get to what I now see was why I resigned after only one year — which relates to the title of this essay. There was a blurb in the national press of a man at a city council meeting in Florida who refused to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance and was forceably removed.. I contacted him, and decided that it is hypocritical that I show respect for this recitation. I’m old enough to remember when the words “under God” were inserted in 1954 so it’ s not just a meaningless phrase to me.
We now have an election for U.S. Senator in Alabama that pits a generic Democrat against a Republican for whom the inclusion of “Under God” is not simply a tradition, but the essence of what he believes in. He doesn’t simply mouth or mumble the words, he would accentuate it as he has by sacrificing his position as Chief Justice of his state to emphasize that these two words are not simply meaningless “ceremonial deism” but the essence of what America should be.
We owe thanks to Mitt Romney, who in this campaign speech in 2012, dispelled the concept of “under God” in the Pledge as meaningless “ceremonial deism” with these words:
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For me, the Pledge of Allegiance and placing our hand over our heart reminds us of the blood that was shed by our sons and our daughters fighting for our liberty and sharing liberty with people around the world. The promises that were made in that pledge are promises I plan on keeping if I'm president and I've kept them so far in my life. [applause] That pledge says under God. I will not take God out of the name of our platform. [applause] I will not take God off our coins and I will not take God out of my heart. We're a nation — [applause] — bestowed by God. One nation, indivisible —
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I think less of myself for buckling under and standing for this pledge, this breach of our first amendment protection of freedom of expression and of religion, even though on one occasion I did refuse to stand for the Pledge, stating my reasons as supporting the action taken by the individual in Florida. It was a sparse attendance and didn’t even make the local papers, but I knew in my heart that every meeting I attended that by showing respect for this affirmation that our country is under God, rather than as a democracy based on rationality, was to me succumbing to a Weltanschauung , that invisible set of assumptions that define a society, that is the underpinning for the values that allow a Judge Roy Moore to be possibly elected to the Senate, but more telling, perversely underpinned the election of Donald Trump to the Presidency.
If there were another elected political figure who would take the lead, I certainly would follow. But the courage or ability to lead this movement, as much as I’m convinced of it’s importance, is something I don’t possess. It is pale comfort that others who have these same convictions are loathe to act on them.