A Better Pledge

Sometimes you do something for so long that you forget why you are doing it. What’s the original reason for blowing out candles on a birthday cake? Why is knocking on wood supposed to ward off bad luck? Why exactly do we shake hands with someone when we first meet them?

When it comes to civics in the United States, one thing we do reflexively is the Pledge of Allegiance. We recite the pledge at school and government events and seldom question what we are actually doing.

It’s a bit strange when you think about it. We pledge allegiance to the “flag” of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. The republic makes sense, but why the flag? Why not just pledge allegiance to the United States?

The flag is an important symbol, but it is odd to pledge allegiance to a symbol rather than just what the symbol represents. The United States of America defines its flag, the flag does not define the United States. We don’t add another state to the Union because a star was added to the flag. It’s the other way around. We add another star because a new state has joined.

So, what defines the United States? We the people do, through the U.S. Constitution, and our body of laws built on that Constitution. The Constitution is the bedrock of our system of government. The republic mentioned in the pledge is a constitutional republic. It is the first of its kind and the longest-running constitutional republic in world history. That is something worth pledging to.

In fact, the Oath of Allegiance, which every naturalized citizen of the United States recites to become a citizen, is an oath of allegiance to the Constitution, not the flag. And the oaths that U.S. government officials and every member of the U.S. military pledge are to the Constitution. Again, not the flag.

Indeed, the requirement that U.S. government officials take an oath to support the U.S. Constitution is written in the Constitution. You won’t find any reference to the Pledge of Allegiance in the Constitution, because the first version of the pledge wasn’t created until almost a hundred years after the Constitution was penned.

So why do we pledge allegiance to the flag? In a word, marketing. Starting in 1892, a popular children’s magazine at the time, The Youth’s Companion, began promoting the Pledge of Allegiance, along with flag sales, as a way of instilling patriotism in public school children. Congress formally recognized the Pledge of Allegiance some 50 years later, on the eve of America’s involvement in World War II, and the words “under God” were added during the Communist scare of the 1950s.

At the Benjamin Franklin Party, we are not against the Pledge of Allegiance, we just think a pledge to the Constitution of the United States is a better pledge. At the national level, we begin all of our formal meetings, hand over heart and facing the flag, with this excerpt taken from the congressional oath of office:

“I do solemnly affirm that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion.” 

In the United States, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance is a comfortable tradition, but it’s important to remember what we are doing and why we are doing it. The flag is a great symbol of our nation, but the values and principles we cherish as a country are enshrined in our Constitution. Let’s consider giving the Constitution the recognition it deserves by pledging our allegiance to it.  

Yours in republic keeping,
James Carroll
BFPNC Chair