Because saying the Pledge is unpatriotic. Dissent is patriotic. I guess you haven't read the DU talking points.
Francis Bellamy (creator of the Pledge of Allegiance) was a self-proclaimed national socialist and the purpose of the pledge was to promote a government takeover of education, and to eliminate all of the better alternatives, in order to create an "industrial army" (a Bellamy term) openly modeled on the military to nationalize the economy and establish a utopian society of Christian socialism, as described in the book "Looking Backward" by Edward Bellamy, cousin and cohort of Francis. The pledge was a prayer for a utopian society of Christian socialism even before it was explicitly deified in 1954. The Bellamy ideas were dystopian hell here and abroad.
Bellamy claimed that he stopped attending church because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there. However the legacy of his government takeover of education was racism and segregation imposed by law and taught as official policy in government schools. It was behavior later displayed by the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The racism and segragation in government schools continued even after WWII and into the '60s, even beyond. Bellamy never told anyone to leave government schools "because he disliked the racial bigotry he found there." Those schools still exist to this day. Bellamy was a bigot.
Edward Bellamy's book was an international bestseller and influenced the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (62 million killed), the People's Republic of China (35 million killed), and the National Socialist German Workers' Party (21 million killed). (Death tolls from the book "Death by Government" by Professor R. J. Rummel).
Believe it or not, "our" pledge was the origin of the salute of the National Socialist German Workers' Party.
The original single right arm salute was no less worshipful idolatry then if the left arm had been extended also. That is the mentality that led to its adoption by the National Socialist German Workers' Party. The claim that it was an old Roman salute is a myth.
The right hand over the heart is no less worshipful idolatry then if the left hand were crossed over the right, in another clearer position of prayer.
In 1942 Congress officially recognized the Pledge, but gave it the modern hand-over-the-heart gesture. There is probably one overriding reason why Congress interfered: to make everyone drop the straight-arm salute, which was becoming very embarassing and very revealing.
Congress' 1954 act deifying the national socialist's pledge should not have been a choice between "theistic socialism" or "atheistic socialism," but Congress compounded its 1942 mess in government schools with the 1954 tweaking. A choice between two evils is still evil. Through bizarre ignorance, the updated pledge's deification of government is more accurate in paying homage to Bellamy's monstrous establishment of theistic socialism.
Bellamy was not an atheist. Far from it. Bellamy was a preacher, and a member of the Society of Christian Socialists, and was expelled from the ministry for giving speeches such as "Jesus the Socialist" (finding a copy of that speech is harder than finding photos of the original Nazi-style
salute to the flag).
So, Bellamy was theistic and he was a religious wacko.
It seems like an oversight that the phrase "under God" was not in the original pledge. In that sense, there is no "secular" Pledge of Allegiance and there never was.
According to Bellamy's granddaughter, he would have resented the addition of the words "under God" in 1954. Research indicates that she is incorrect.
While it is true that the first pledge did not contain the phrase "under God," the accompanying articles for the first Pledge program did contain many religious references. A historic discovery may have just been made in that the phrase "under God" is in Bellamy's original article/speech next to the first Pledge (Youth's Companion, September 8, 1892, and see the article
therein "The Meaning of the Four Centuries").
A recent search of the internet indicated that there is only one webpage as the source on the internet for Bellamy's scary speech.
Most Americans support the socialist's pledge and support Bellamy's vision of a massive government-school monopoly, as well as the social security system and other widespread socialism. Bellamy has succeeded in duping even Congressmen into boastfully reciting the socialist's pledge, supporting his government schools, social security and massive spending. One reason for that is because Bellamy's government-school monopoly taught most Americans and most Congressmen propaganda about the pledge, and cajoled everyone into robotically chanting it daily on cue from the government, like Pavlov's lapdogs of the state.
Also, most Americans and most Congressmen have never seen the rare photos of the pledge. Government schools never show them.
The separation of school and state is as important as the separation of church and state. The government should not run Sunday school, nor Monday school through Friday school.
On September 27th, the U.S. Supreme Court conferred about a case urging that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional. The case is Wonschik v. U.S. and I have filed an Amicus Brief in that case.
Wonschik might end the "Pledge Protection Act" before the act starts. It is a race to see which happens first.
A motion to recuse might result in the recusal of the entire U.S. Supreme Court. The motion expands arguments that resulted in the recusal of Justice Scalia. It is the first time in history that a motion to recuse addressed each Justice. The motion to recuse discusses the history of the Pledge and the Court's segregation cases.
Let's restore the pledge to its pre-1892 version.