Thursday

My view of the pledge of allegiance

This is a comment I left on a blog I frequent. After posting it I reflected that it's representative of my views about a touchy subject dear to the hearts of many, and thus was worthy to post in its own right.

I love my country, but to be honest I lost a lot of regard for the pledge when I discovered it was penned by a die-hard socialist flag salesman. And for the longest time I didn’t pay attention to its use of the word indivisible. Yet as a Southerner who fervently believes that Lincoln was a tyrant who did irreparable damage to the Constitution, I now recognize that “indivisible” flies right in the face of the state’s right of secession. And lastly, I read Jonah Goldberg’s book Liberal Fascism not long ago, and I became enlightened to the long history of governments using patriotism to harness and redirect the devotion of the citizens in ways that would benefit the corrupt political class.

I have reached the point where I detest my government while still loving my nation. Far too many Americans can’t seem to distinguish between the two, and in my opinion the pledge helps to further that confusion. I sincerely wish that Americans would learn and be able to recite the Bill of Rights - instead of some flag salesman’s promo bit.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are right on the mark,thanks for posting this truth.

Chief Instructor said...

For the past few years when I'm at an event where the pledge is recited, I substitute "constitution" for "flag".

I look at "indivisible" as a national, "Don't tread on me" - mess with us, and we'll whip your ass.

I hear what you're saying though. "Detest" is accurate.

kdzu said...

You've put your finger on my feelings toward the government for many of the past 35 years. I used to hope it would change if I could just convince enough people to vote for the constitution and not the party. Sadly nothing much has changed although admittedly now more people are talking the way I have. Only time will tell if enough are willing to 'walk the talk' through the coming days.

Diogenes said...

I have felt no need to declare loyalty to a piece of cloth in a long time. You are in the black with your assessment of just how twisted 'loyalties' have become using semantics to describe patriotism. The Pledge is only one aspect of that.

At first, I was appalled at O not covering his heart for the Pledge or the Anthem. Now, I am not so sure. He is still a tyrant in my book; I just don't let little stuff like that get in the way of observations now.