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But the efforts to impugn Dukakis' patriotism are part of a larger, time- tested Republican theme: to portray the Democrats as the inheritors of intellectual doubt and malaise, the party that is soft on defense, that perceives America as being on a long, slow decline. The Republicans, by contrast, have successfully cast themselves as the party of stand-tall patriotism and vigilant anti-Communism. As the hawkish Republican Congressman Newt Gingrich of Georgia put it, "If this election is between George Bush and someone who is more liberal than George McGovern, we win. If it's an election between two competent leaders, we lose."
The Pledge of Allegiance issue is the product of Bush's opposition research team. In 1977, during Dukakis' first term as Governor, the Massachusetts legislature passed a bill requiring teachers to lead their classes in the pledge each day. Following standard state practice, Dukakis sought an advisory ruling on the bill from his attorney general as well as the state supreme court. Both found the bill unconstitutional: the landmark 1943 U.S. Supreme Court decision West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette held that requiring a student to recite the pledge under the threat of expulsion violated the Constitution's guarantee of freedom of speech and worship.
Dukakis' veto was overridden by large margins in the legislature, but the state attorney general ruled that the law was "unenforceable." As in most states, the pledge is still recited in Massachusetts elementary schools on a voluntary basis. "Of course, the pledge is taken all the time in Massachusetts," Dukakis said last week. "We take it in ceremonies and everything else. I encourage schoolchildren to say the Pledge of Allegiance . . . That's not the issue, and the Republicans know it."
Bush professes not to buy Dukakis' explanation for his veto. "Let's face it," the Vice President said to a cheering crowd in Los Angeles, "my opponent was looking for a reason not to sign that bill. I would be looking for a reason to sign that legislation." Bush implied that Dukakis intended to prevent Massachusetts students from reciting the pledge, which was clearly not the case. He then added, "It's very hard for me to imagine that the Founding Fathers -- Samuel Adams, John Adams and John Hancock -- would have objected to teachers leading students in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States."
It is hard to imagine the Founding Fathers being concerned with the pledge at all, since it was written 116 years after they penned the Declaration of Independence. The original 22 words of the Pledge of Allegiance were drawn up in 1892 as a promotional vehicle for a Boston magazine called Youth's Companion. Composed by a staff writer for the weekly publication, which normally featured morally uplifting anecdotes for young readers, the pledge was intended for recital at ceremonies marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus' discovery of America. According to the official program distributed by the magazine, students first acknowledged the Stars and Stripes with a military salute. Then, "the right hand is extended gracefully, palm upward, towards the Flag, and remains in this gesture til the end of the affirmation."