So the big news of the day is that a Federal Judge of the 9th Circuit – the one in San Francisco – struck down the addition by Congress in the 1950s of the words “under God” to the Pledge of Allegiance. This will send fundamentalists into a tizzy and, since it will have to, once again, be trundled up to the Supreme Court for a look-see, toss yet another monkey in the wrench of nominating and approving the replacement for Sandra Day O’Connor.
Funny thing is, according to this guy (who, aside from being the victim of bad web design, seems to be somewhat credible.) the Pledge of Allegiance was authored by a pair of socialist New Englanders who advocated the nationalization of the American economy and various other 19th Century collectivist ideals. Later it became part of the Klu Klux Klan’s machinery of hate and exclusion, as part of a package to promote a pro-American view in public schools as a nationalist indoctrination, which included an Oregon law forcing Catholic children to attend public schools. The Under God amendment was added in the midst of the Red-scare at the behest of the Catholic fraternity the Knights of Columbus to differentiate the God fearing capitalists of the United States from the Godless communists of the Union of Soviet Socialist States. (Incidentally, that probably is the reason for striking down the amendment as an unconstitutional advocation of a national religion.)
So, the mostly capitalist, mostly Protestant Christian fundamentalists will marshal their forces and funds to defend the modifications made by a communist fearing Congress, with the support of a catholic fraternity to a socialist mantra later used by hate mongers to persecute Catholics. Got it.
Wikipedia has some more juicy tit-bits on this, as well as some corroboration to the Baer article.
A question comes to mind whenever some whack job from the fundamentalist or atheist side of the fence shows up in court over the Pledge of Allegiance: Why are we so wrapped up in the allegiance to the flag but not to the Constitution? I mean, come on, the oath of office for everyone in government makes mention of the Constitution, it is the real power in our system, the flag is just what the socialists from New England treated it as – a symbolic icon with no real power or authority.
If we really cared about the things that the Pledge of Allegiance implies we care about – the republic, liberty, justice, one Nation, and, yes, even under God – why aren’t we invoking the Declaration of Independence, Preamble to the Constitution, or the Gettysburg Address? At least they were written by estimable patriarchs of the republic, not a hodgepodge of fanatics over the course of a hundred years.