Politics & Power Quote by Michael Newdow

A lawyer’s sentence engineered like a brief: identify the harmed class, name the state actor, then pin the mechanism of injury on messaging rather than statute. Newdow isn’t only arguing that atheists are disliked; he’s arguing they’re administratively demoted, rendered “second-class” by a government that launders theology into citizenship. The phrasing “continuously sends messages” matters. It frames establishment not as a single unconstitutional act but as a steady drip of official cues - mottos on currency, “under God” in civic rituals, politicians performing piety as proof of legitimacy. Soft power becomes the point: you don’t need a religious test when you can produce a cultural one.

The scare-quoted “real Americans” is the tell. Newdow is indicting a familiar American move: define national belonging through moral performance, then treat dissent as disloyalty. His subtext is that the harm is both psychological and civic. It’s not just hurt feelings; it’s a public signal about who counts when schools, courts, and legislatures speak in the state’s voice. The government doesn’t have to ban atheists from office to make them feel like perpetual guests.

Context sharpens the charge. Newdow is closely associated with church-state litigation (especially around the Pledge of Allegiance), and this line reads as a translation of constitutional doctrine into a moral register an ordinary reader can grasp. He’s trying to shift the debate from “Are these words ceremonial?” to “What do these words do?” - to belonging, stigma, and the quiet coercion of civic religion.