Years ago, I saw the differences between the Republicans and the Democrats in the same way I saw the differences between the Baptists and the Methodists. Some small brand differences, but the same core beliefs. Good, honest, sincere well-meaning folks all. That may have changed.

Frequent readers of these editorials know I am an independent conservative. I have roundly criticized the far-left yet picked apart the President’s war strategy, if not his motives. And while I can almost always find virtue on either side of the political debate, I must admit that I find less and less of it on the side of the Democrats as they are being dragged further and further to the far anti-American left.

As we enter the final 12 months before the 2008 presidential election, Sen. Barack Hussein Obama, on the campaign trail for President of the United States of America offers himself as an excellent example of that far-left influence as he refuses to say the pledge or put his hand over his heart as the pledge is recited.

"Rather, this man who would be our president, our
Commander in Chief, placed his hands over his crotch."

Rather, this man who would be our president, our Commander in Chief, placed his hands over his crotch.

Sen. Obama is not an obscure wanna-be on the fringe of the Democratic Party. He is closely contending with John Edwards for number two, behind only Sen. Hillary Clinton, on a race that many pundits believe is a lock for the Democrats. Given his standing in the polls, one can surmise that his behavior meets the approval of his constituency.
 

Obama’s decision to cover his crotch rather than his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance — and his party’s deafening silence of approval afterward — might be overlooked if it were an isolated event.

Yet just last month Obama was forced to explain why he did not wear a flag pin on his lapel, explaining that although he had worn a pin shortly after 9/11, he stopped doing so when he felt it had become a substitute for “true patriotism.”

I must confess, the senator has me confused. I’m trying to understand just what was passing through his mind at the moment he removed the flag pin. While certainly the pin alone is insufficient to prove patriotism, it certainly is not mutually exclusive with “speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security... that will be a testimony to my patriotism,” an activity the senator apparently believes allows him to discard any overt symbols of loyalty to his country.

Yet the senator pro-actively removed the pin. He pro-actively refused to show respect to the flag during the Pledge. Who is this man who wants to be our president yet feels uncomfortable expressing loyalty and allegiance to this country? And who is the party that so enthusiastically supports him?

"Has love for one’s country become just another sappy
sentiment to the Democrats? Have symbols of this great
nation such as the flag and the Pledge, so important to the
last generation of Harry Truman’s party, become corny
throw-a-ways?"

Has love for one’s country become just another sappy sentiment to the Democrats? Have symbols of this great nation such as the flag and the Pledge, so important to the last generation of Harry Truman’s party, become corny throw-a-ways?

Sen. Obama’s behavior is not so inconsistent with many of the recent positions taken by the Democrats. It has become the party that cheers for the rights of terrorists over the security of this nation. The party that seemingly desires a US loss in Iraq because it will make the Bush administration’s stock drop. The party that cheers open borders simply because they know it will swell their voting ranks. The party that believes in it’s heart of hearts that America is no longer a force for good in the world.

Do they find it so difficult to support these venerable symbols of this country's greatness because they find so little to love about America and so much to condemn?

Do I question Sen. Obama’s love and loyalty for America? You bet I do — along with several other Democrat candidates perhaps too slick as politicians to reveal what Obama has so clearly shown.

"If you are a Democrat who still gets a lump in your throat
when you hear the Star Spangled Banner, perhaps it is time
you take your party back from those that have hijacked it."

"If you are a Democrat who still gets a lump in your throat when you hear the Star Spangled Banner, perhaps it is time you take your party back from those that have hijacked it. Take it back from George Soros, Howard Dean, Harry Reid and the radical Hollywood left.

We can argue all day about health care, taxation and foreign policy, but at the end of the day, all Americans must get back to those core values we once shared.

“Not your father’s Oldsmobile” was a clever ad line until it became all too true. Oldsmobile is gone.

FACT CHECK THIS STORY AT SNOPES.COM: http://www.snopes.com/politics/obama/anthem.asp