I haven’t heard much about it lately, but I remember hearing that if you wanted to see Bush speak on the campaign trail, you had to sign a loyality oath. Why is that ? Does that mean you have to vote for George ? What if you signed it a while ago, but changed your mind ? Could you get in trouble ? Is it possible that these oaths could be used in case of a dispute to the winner ?
Thanks.
So far as I recall, use of the oath was reported in Cheney’s New Mexico appearances. It said:
It later adds that, "In signing the above endorsement you are consenting to use and release of your name by Bush-Cheney as an endorser of President Bush.
Note there is no promise regarding a person’s vote. There’s no way to enforce such a promise anyway, seeing as that votes are secret. I’m not sure on the precise authorities in this area, but I’m pretty sure it would be illegal to try to force a person to adhere to such a promise to vote anyway.
Loyality? Is this another of Bush’s fumbling malapropisms (if I can call it that), or yours alone?
Quite frankly, acsenray’s cite sounds more like a consent/release thing than an oath. It sounds like they just want the person in question to not raise a ruckus if their image, captured at the campaign event in question, appears in some Bush ad down the line.
I parse that as “Being under the influence of wacky tobacky, I endorse George W. Bush [yadda yadda yadda]”.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31019-2004Jul31.html
Calling that a “loyalty oath” is like calling me a dead ringer for Tom Cruise.
Of course, it does pay leftists the compliment of assuming they wouldn’t sign a document stating something false about themselves.
I posted a thread about this yesterday, but didn’t get much of a response, so I’ll ask again: have any scans or similar reproductions of these documents turned up online? Also, how widespread is their use? I repeatedly hear on this board that Bush is completely shielded from criticism; are these oaths being used at every public appearance?
It was used at the Cheney event in Albuquerque. I don’t know if it’s used at other events, but most of Bush’s campaign appearances have featured various forms of audience screening – if you’re wearing a pro-Kerry button or shirt, or even just a pro-civil rights T-shirt, they don’t want you near their rally.
No. That could be done with a form that says “I consent to allow my image to be used…” This form specifically allows the campaign to claim you’ve endorsed Bush, which would not only be embarassing, but would prevent many people (me, for instance) from signing.
–Cliffy
Cliffy, you’re right that that would probably be necessary if the person in question demanded payment for appearing in the commercial. My point is they don’t want anyone later saying “Using my image in that pro-Bush commercial gave people the mistaken impression that I’m for Bush.” I find it unlikely that someone who’s pro-Bush would even bat an eye about having his or her image in a pro-Bush commercial. On the other hand, someone who is anti-Bush would be certain to raise hell about appearing in a pro-Bush commercial…and would probably go straight to the press with their story rather than quietly and politely ask the RNC to not show his or her face in the ad.
And yet, oddly enough, pro-Bush folks can attend John Kerry rallies without any such problems whatsoever…
Is there any site or group documenting what screening methods are being used and at what events? If I’m going to say that Bush is using loyalty oaths or their equivalent, I want to know that it’s true, especially before implying that it’s standard operating procedure.
The Progressive magazine keeps track of this kind of thing among its “McCarthyism Watch” items – http://www.progressive.org/mcwatch03/mcwatch03.html
Here’s one story of what the Bush campaign won’t put up with. Apparently, supporting civil rights is verbot…, er, forbidden.
Quote from your link:
Idiots. Clearly, these shirts are worded in the form of a demand. That’s about as “confrontational” as you can get. Perhaps if the shirts had said ‘O please, Great and Glorious Leader, protect our civil liberties if you deem them worthy of protection’, they wouldn’t have been thrown out on their commie pinko pro-terrorist butts.
:smack:
As long as we’re on the topic, here’s a piece from August about a guy who attended a Bush rally with a pro-Kerry shirt, and a Kerry rally with a pro-Bush shirt, in the same day.