When will the flag burning amendment "issue" come back?

[bluestateguy]

What better way to fend off tough questions about false intelligence and a mounting death toll in Iraq than by rousing the public with this phony "issue". Imagine these shameless Republicans waving the bloody shirt of the dead soldiers to bar American citizens from constitutionally protected speech.

[ButterflyBlood]

1. Orrin Hatch said they won't bring it to the Senate until next year

anyway, it never makes enough attention to get something this big off the headlines. Just a mention on page 2 one day and then it's gone.

[bluestateguy]

3. Yeah, next year, an election year...

So as to bludgeon Democratic senators up for reelection from Red states. Remember, Mike Dukakis may have lost in 1988 because of the Pledge of Allegience "issue". Many Americans get thrown into a real tizzy when it comes to symbolic patriotic gestures.

[ButterflyBlood]

4. They've tried it before

and it's never been that huge of an issue. Anyone dumb enough to vote against someone based only on that is hopeless anyway.

The Pledge of Allegience may of hurt Dukakis, but that itself can't account for the huge loss he got.

[REP]

2. Let's Hope Never

Surely it would be seen as a cynical ploy to distract attention from the administration's being caught red-handed lying.

[Lexingtonian]

5. No, it's dying

It was one of those early '90s wedge issues- it just doesn't have the draw it used to, and it probably wedges more Republicans than Democrats at this point. Additionally, a lot of conservatives are queasy about restricting civil liberties further after the PATRIOT Act.

It's not working as well as it used to for the same reason that marching in the streets isn't. Both sides now agree that there is 'another America' containing their opposites and the famous culture gap lies between them.

We're winning the Culture War, that was a weapon that only worked while conservatives had a majority. These days it still gets some Republicans elected in the Deep South (Perdue in Georgia) when nothing else works. It's sufficiently effective anywhere else, I guess.

[ButterflyBlood]

6. yep

The Freepers are as just as pissed as it as we are. McConnell has been one of its most vocal opponents.