Friday, March 5, 2010

Oath Keepers

I ran across this group: http://oathkeepers.org/oath/ on another site.

In brief, the group is oriented towards members of the military and law enforcement, reminding them that their oaths are sworn to the Constitution of the United States, not its government. They have issued a list of ten orders they will disobey in the event they are given (a quick scan; all ten orders look to me like clear violations of the US Constitution as written and ammended). Noteably, they will not disarm US citizens nor engage in unwarrented searches, arrests, or detentions.

This is one of those groups I'm ambiguous about. On the face of it, I wholeheartedly support their stated goals. I strongly suspect I'd be quite at home in any large assembly of such people, at least so long as the group stayed 'on topic.'

However, I'm wary as well. Such motives are used as comoflage by a particularly dangerous brand of extremist.

In the end, it comes down to timing. I have no doubt that if the US keeps going in the direction it is now there will come a time when our government will break the Constitution; it has certainly bent it almost out of recognition already! However I believe that the break has not happened yet, and also that it is not inevitable. And for the record, while the Assault Weapons Ban is high on my list of un-Constitutional legislation, the Patriot Act is much, much worse. The TSA (formed, you will note, by a Republican President) is more a violation of the rights of citizens than anything PBHO has done to date that I'm aware of.

So I don't want to connect myself to a group that believes the time has already come. However, I do feel the desire to support and spread the message.

Any thoughts?

2 comments:

Toni said...

"However, I'm wary as well. Such motives are used as comoflage by a particularly dangerous brand of extremist."

Could you expound on this a little bit? I don't see the harm in what they're saying personally - unless they are suggestion outright armed rebellion against our government.

Even so it wouldn't be the first time this country rebelled against the government to secure our freedom... right?

Gridley said...

I also see no harm in what they're saying... but words like these have been used by white supremacists and believers in the "Zionist Oppressive Government" to name two.

The problem is that I know of no way to tell the various groups apart from the outside. Hopefully someone out there does, and can tell me.

And as noted, I do believe that the people have the right to rebel against the government in order to secure the Constitution; but I'm a little wary of the company I keep on the political front (one of many reasons I'm not a member of any political party).