‘With liberty and justice for all’
Does the pledge actually require the republic that it has such a thing as stated above as a condition of such pledge? I don’t think for a second anyone can say that the US does even come close the this ideal of liberty and justice for all. They may be better then others but they are no where close to this ideal.
Is not the burden of proof in the republic itself to live up to this standard (in SDMB talk cite please; demanded of the ‘US Republic’), to gain the allegiance of the pledge, and if the US republic can’t prove that they are in fact such a republic, they should have no expectation of the pledge of the people who have made it honoring it - and have no moral right expecting it.