Guest Post: Loyalty Pledge

"Do you commit to voting for _______"

Peter Sage Introduction to the Guest Post:   I have just settled in to Florida and have seen Marco Rubio on Florida television.   He looks and sounds desperate.  There is a subtle difference between the intensity of hope and enthusiasm and the intensity of desperation.   It's not too late, he says.   We can still do it, he says.  I will be watching a pre-debate rally mid afternoon, and report on his tone.

In this Guest Post Thad Guyer reports on the media buzz about "loyalty pledges".   So far I have not encountered one, not a single one, in about 40 different events.   There is paperwork involved in nearly every event as the campaign staffers gather phone numbers, zip codes, and email addresses.  My sense is that the media is turning into "news" something that is pretty natural in the days prior to state elections, the campaign's attempt to solidify "leaners" in order to Get Out The Vote.   "Will you commit" is just nicer than asking "Will you bother to show up or will you flake out".   That is the real question.

Still, the fact that there is media buzz on something that in my opinion is a non-event is, itself, the news, and that is what Thad making visible.  The story is not really about loyalty oaths,  The story is that the media is in a desperate attempt to find Hitler authoritarian links between the candidates and a routine and predictable campaign practice.

Thad is an attorney who focuses his practice on representing whistleblower employees.  He pays close attention to messages that persuade judges and juries.

Here is Thad Guyer

Oh no, is Trump stealing the Hitler-like supporter “pledge” from Hillary and Bernie?  

The media is alight today with the news that Trump has been asking supporters to take a pledge supporting him. It is Hitler-like we are warned. Some party poopers tried to tamp down the hysteria, or what some of us call the fun of watching our fellows on the left self-immolate. “Trump: It’s ‘ridiculous’ to compare his pledge to a Nazi salute”, Washington Post https://goo.gl/h77hjS. Yesterday it was Bernie the white racist and his white racist supporters. Yet today, this may be Hillary being cheated out of Hitler credit just like white racist credit. See, “Hillary Demands Loyalty Pledge”, Newsmax, http://goo.gl/XD2lza, reporting her campaign demanded that “attendees at a Cleveland, Ohio, event to sign a loyalty pledge before being allowed to enter, writes Salena Zito at Real Clear Politics”. More coverage followed at “Hillary Clinton Makes Voters Sign Loyalty Pledge Before Entering Event”, Mediaite
http://goo.gl/4F33X5.

Thankfully, Trump and Hillary aren’t the only ones pandering to the pledge vote. See voter pledge coverage at “Don’t Assume Bernie Sanders Supporters Will Back Hillary Clinton If She’s The Nominee”, Huffington Post, http://goo.gl/mfVUYu, and “Bernie supporters: Will you take the Bernie Pledge?”, Daily Kos http://goo.gl/zhfBqz. So if you are at a Clinton or Sanders rally, no matter what, if they ask you to raise your hand for anything, don't do it! Wait, wait, note of caution-- if its the pledge of allegiance you better stand and say it or else--"Hillary Clinton Supporter Refused to Stand for Pledge of Allegiance", Free Beacon, http://goo.gl/rM268u. Maybe Larry David is right on Curb Your Enthusiasm: "You can't even leave your house". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1MneRzGuaE.

Meanwhile, the absurd leftist hype in the media and social media continues to drive Trump to victory after victory.