Sarah Palin is Mistaken About “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance September 1, 2008

Sarah Palin is Mistaken About “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance

By Guest Contributor
September 1, 2008

In 2006, a questionnaire was sent to all candidates for the gubernatorial race in Alaska.

One of the questions was this:

11. Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?

Here is Sarah Palin‘s answer:

SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

Of course, anyone who has done 10 seconds of research into the matter knows that “Under God” was not added to the Pledge until 1954 in reaction to those “Godless Communists.”

In fact, the original Pledge wasn’t written until the late 1800s, long after our Founding Fathers were buried.

Not that any of this matters to her. She’s just going to stick to her Conservative Christian talking points.

(via Daily Kos)

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  • Yoo

    I wonder. Do people who want to keep the “under God” in the Pledge and currency fond of witch hunts? That’s when they were put in! (At least McCarthyism seems to count as a witch hunt …)

  • Wow… I knew she was going to be too Christian for me anyway, but thanks to this post, I will now, without any doubt, NOT vote for either party in this year’s election.

  • A social conservative divorced from reality? That’s unpossible!

    Of course, if social conservatives had their way, that’d be the only thing you can get divorced from.

  • Eric

    Some words from Palin’s pastors:
    http://harpers.org/archive/2008/08/hbc-90003486

    All to predictable, really.

  • cipher

    It would appear that Palin has more than a casual affiliation with the Dominionists: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/8/29/163234/559/495/579213

  • Vincent

    anyone know if her complete ignorance was ever pointed out to her?

  • justin jm

    According to Ms Palin, she will fight

    in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance. (my emphasis)

    Maybe I’m just paranoid, but it appears that she believes the/a Pledge of Allegiance cannot belong to non-believers as well. That, of course, is the meaning of the “Under God” bit.

    Do people just assume now that we cannot be patriotic? Is this some kind of unconscious default view?

  • chancelikely

    Actually, I agree with Palin on this one:

    “If it was good enough for the Founding Fathers, it’s good enough for me.”

    I believe our interpretations of that sentence would be completely different, but I do agree with that statement.

  • Gee, why am I not surprised? *facepalm*

  • Miko

    So, I assume that by her “if it was good enough…” logic that she instantly became a proponent of secularism when her error was pointed out to her?

    “If it was good enough for the Founding Fathers, it’s good enough for me.”

    I believe our interpretations of that sentence would be completely different, but I do agree with that statement.

    Really? You know, slavery was good enough for the Founders too. They had some pretty good ideas, but were by no means an automatic source of wisdom on all subjects.

  • David D.G.

    Riiiiiight. And if King James’ English was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me. (*eyeroll*)

    ~David D.G.

  • Karen

    I read yesterday that she declared a Christian Heritage day in Alaska last year.

    This woman is scary. We all need to spread the word on this kind of thing, because moderates who don’t follow the news closely may be tempted by her perky, “maverick” image. She’s a lot more dangerous than she looks!

  • Epistaxis

    Apparently Republicans consider Joe McCarthy a Founding Father.

  • Tyler Nothing

    I’m ashamed to be from Alaska because of the ignorant statements made by the elected officials of that state. First, Ted Stevens with his “series of tubes” statement, and now her. I’m glad I live in Oregon now.

  • I hope all this stuff gets enough coverage in the MSM and the Obama campaign to wave off any Hillary supporters who are thinking about jumping ship. I’m normally not so venomous but any Hillary supporter who votes for McCain out of spite or just because he picked a woman VP is a moron.

  • Don’t worry, it’s getting plenty of play in the MSM.
    My wife, who doesn’t even follow politics, asked me about it today. That’s a pretty good barometer for when a story is being “covered.”

  • SarahH

    One of my least favorite kinds of people is the type who insists that America is a “Christian nation” and believes in fictional versions of our founding fathers. Not only were all the founding fathers dead before our pledge of allegiance was written, the original version didn’t include anything about God at all. That wasn’t added until 1954, right around the time we added “In God We Trust” to our money and established the National Day of Prayer (thanks again Eisenhower).

    So I guess it wasn’t good enough for our founding fathers… so it’s not good enough for Palin, right? It shouldn’t be, as it violates the separation of church and state which is one of our nation’s defining characteristics, protecting the people from religious persecution and religions from state persecution. Symbols are quite powerful, and throwing “God” on money and in pledges and statues perpetuates this myth that Palin apparently believes – that America = Christian.

    “Not on your life” is also quite strong phrasing, implying that not only does she support this petty theocratic BS, she feels strongly about it. *sigh*

  • laterose

    Really? You know, slavery was good enough for the Founders too. They had some pretty good ideas, but were by no means an automatic source of wisdom on all subjects.

    That’s exactly what scares me about the over idealization of our founding fathers’ government. We’re talking about a country where I couldn’t vote, and a lot of people would be property.

    Although as I understand it one of the subjects they did get right is the role of religion in government. Too bad some people don’t know their actual stance on the subject.

  • Dr.Toxic

    Do they get enough oxygen up there in Alaska?

  • Great post, Hemant. I’ve had many arguments with people who claim that both the Pledge and our US money have always had the word ‘God’ on them. Just a few mins of research leaves them running away speechless.

  • BTW, looks the Alaska Eagle Forum removed that 2006 questions post. Maybe they were getting too much traffic from Daily KOS, this site and others that linked to it. Anyone save it off before it went away?