Essay: Rally Round the Flag, Boys

When Michael Dukakis was asked about news stories casting doubt on George Bush's World War II heroism, he said, "I don't think that kind of thing has any place in the campaign . . . You don't fly 58 missions without enormous courage and tremendous patriotism." Not long afterward, Bush said of Dukakis, "What is it about the Pledge of Allegiance that upsets him so much?"

There is no mistaking Bush's point. It has nothing to do with the constitutional question of whether Dukakis eleven years ago should have vetoed a bill mandating recital of the pledge in school classrooms every...