A certain Robert Thurman argues in a
video that elected representatives who sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge promoted by Grover Norquist and Americans for Tax Reform (ATR) are betraying their oath of office. Here is the text of the ATR pledge for members of the US House of Representatives (
source; there are corresponding forms for US senators, state legislators, and state governors):
Taxpayer Protection Pledge
I, _______________, pledge to the taxpayers of the _____ district of the state of__________, and to the American people that I will:
ONE, oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rates for individuals and/or businesses; and
TWO, oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates.
Here is the oath of office that members of the US House and Senate take (emphasis added):
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
Thurman observes:
These people have signed a sworn oath that contradicts their oath of office. And therefore, in fact, they do have mental reservations, and they do have purpose of evasion and they are not sincerely taking their oath of office. And if they persist in that, and if they are held to that by this outside person who is not a member of the government, then they are, in fact, breaking their oath of office and they are not serving what they swore to serve the American people.
Thurman makes the claim that the ATR pledge is effectively an oath to ATR and that therefore to sign it is to betray one's oath of office. ATR, of course, denies this, and insists that the pledge is a pledge of each elected official to his or her constituents and no one else. It is certainly right about that as far as the text of the pledge goes. It also admits that it "has the role of promoting and monitoring" the pledge, and Norquist has been explicit that ATR will use any elected official's abandonment of the pledge against him or her in an election. So ATR pressures Republican legislators and governors to sign the pledge and makes known its intention to see to it that any signer who abandons it is voted out of office, but denies that it is incurring any elected official's loyalty. A pretty fine distinction, I think.