Loyalty Oaths An Under-used Issue

[maine_raptor]

These loyalty oaths that anybody wishing to hear Bush in person is, IMHO, an issue that is both powerful and under used by the Kerry campaign.

Just the thought of requiring American Citizens to sign a pledge to any one candidate in order to hear that candidate ought to be repugnant to any believer in democracy, free election, and Freedom of Speech.

This is so Un-American that it shakes the foundation of our political society. These oaths smack of McCarthyism, Blacklists, and "Have you ever been" type questions.

Kerry talks about reforms of the USA/Patriot Act. Bush defends the act and wants to increase governmental powers over the lives of citizens. Isn't the requirement to sign one of the oaths in order to attend a Bush rally just a continuation of the mindset that also approves the the "necessity" of sneak and peak provisions in the USA/Patriot Act?

And just what do these oaths says about the candidate that requires them? Doesn't that say to the voter; "Your opinion no longer count, it's just what I say." How can any true believer in the "American Way" pass off such a un-freedom-like requirement as just "another funny rule"?

A lot of folks here are giving Kerry such and such advise. And while I have refrained from doing so in the past, I now feel that the campaign has reached the point where I can no longer resist putting my .02 in to the pot.

So here goes:

Kerry/Edwards and the surrogates on the campaign trail should start calling Bush and his ilk on these oaths. They are so "Un-American" that making that argument to the public will not be hard. The American Voters have an almost visceral understanding what constitutes "Americanism" and the Bush Loyalty Oaths are not part of that understanding.

USE IT JOHN..........And they will follow you.

[truthspeaker]

1. They can bring it up every time they are heckled.

Point out that hecklers at Bush/Cheney events are hustled out and often arrested for trespassing. Kerry/Edwards events are open to everyone.

[AmerDem]

2. ! agree

There is an endless list of topic that could be used to put shrub in his place! As of now, hardly anything used effectively!

[Sinistrous]

3. Maybe, when the bush lizards shed their skin at a Kerry/Edwards rally,

Kerry/ Edwards could say something like:

"See what happens when you don't use loyalty oaths to screen your audience? People actually get to express a difference of opinion. That is really the essence of democracy, isn't it?"

(I'm sure that can be tightened up a good bit.)

[Catfight]

4. I agree! n/t