Eye Recommend --- Oath Keepers and the Age of Treason

Members of the Oath Keepers in Ferguson on Tuesday (Lucas Jackson/Reuters)

OATH KEEPERS AND THE AGE OF TREASON, by Justine Sharrock --
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2010/03/oath-keepers

what eye thynk:  Civilian white guys dressed in military garb and carrying assault rifles being pretty low on my list of common sense solutions to possible unrest in largely black neighborhoods, the recent news that Oath Keepers have shown up in Ferguson, Missouri on the anniversary of the death of Michael Brown made me wonder about this group and what they represent.  

I found this Mother Jones article from 2010 that confirms all my worst fears.

"Pvt. 1st Class Lee Pray is preparing "to take on the US government when it declares martial law.

His belief that that day is imminent has led Pray to a group called Oath Keepers, one of the fastest-growing 'patriot' organizations on the right.  Founded (in April 2009) by Yale-educated lawyer and ex-Ron Paul aide Stewart Rhodes, the group has established itself as a hub in the sprawling anti-Obama movement..."

Mr. Rhodes, who says his group boasts 30,000 members, recently wrote on their website: "Go armed, at all times, as free men and women, and be ready to do sudden battle, anywhere, anytime, and with utter recklessness.  That is the price of freedom."

"...There are scores of patriot groups, but what makes Oath Keepers unique is that its core membership consists of men and women in uniform, including soldiers, police, and veterans.  At regular ceremonies in every state, members reaffirm their official oaths of service, pledging to protect the Constitution--but then they go a step further, vowing to disobey 'unconstitutional' orders from what they view as an increasingly tyrannical government.

Pray...and five fellow soldiers based at Fort Drum take this directive very seriously.  In the belief that the government is already turning on its citizens, they are recruiting military buddies, stashing weapons, running drills, and outlining a plan of action...  

... In Pray's estimate, it might not be long (months, perhaps a year) before President Obama finds some pretext--a pandemic, a natural disaster, a terror attack--to impose martial law, ban interstate travel, and begin detaining citizens en masse..."

Five years later, Pvt. Pray is still waiting, we're still driving our interstate highways on the way to vacation cabins and nobody is living in a citizen detention camp.  He and his idiot friends must have been jumping for joy when Jade Helm was announced.  Finally, proof that they're not just another conspiracy group with no conspiracy to they're name!

"...When it does, Pray and his buddies plan to go AWOL and make their way to their 'fortified bunker'--the home of one comrade's parents in rural Idaho--where they've stocked survival gear, generators, food, and weapons.  If it becomes necessary, they say, they will turn those guns against their fellow soldiers..."

You know, when I was eleven, a lady moved into a house on the corner of our street.  She fascinated all the neighborhood kids because 1- she lived alone 2 - she went everywhere on a bicycle, something no adult did in the 50s, and 3 - she dressed all in black and always wore a long cape.  We used to stake out her house and planned how to sneak out of our homes at night to guarantee around-the-clock surveillance because we were convinced she was a "real" witch.  The game lasted for a summer and then was forgotten. 

But Pvt. Pray and his friends sound like particularly disturbed adults who still think like little boys playing at soldier, except that they are soldiers...adult soldiers... with real weapons.

What should give us all pause, is the fact that this is a nationally growing group that has the support of people like Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Pat Buchanan, a group that has blossomed out of the platform of hate that the GOP has fed the gullible and bigoted for nearly seven years.  A group that thinks sending "operatives" to Ferguson is an intelligent idea. 

The only way to keep a government conspiracy group alive is to continue to feed it with "facts" that will convince people that the threat is real.  And if you want to keep the members hyped, you have to escalate your rhetoric, something the Republican Party has been particularly adept at doing. 

The result of the GOP's seven year long hate-fest can be seen in Donald Trump's dominance of the right's presidential primary roster.  It can be seen in cases like that of Alfred Baria who was arrested last week in Mississippi and charged with shooting at soldiers at a Jade Helm military training site.  And it can be seen in groups like the Oath Keepers who are no longer satisfied with hiding in their toy bunkers, but are stepping into the national spotlight in places like Ferguson, Missouri. 

The U.S. has always been home to some group that wants to fight the government, but they've been fringe agitators content to live away from our city centers, arming themselves in order to protect their own.  The Oath Keepers are an entirely different kind of club--fed by the GOP's endless conspiracy news cycle, they think they're protecting you and me. 

The time is long over-due for some Republican re-thinking on the 24/7/365 everything-Obama conspiracy talk.  Disagreement is part and parcel to a democracy.  So is civility, an aspect that the GOP has ignored for far too long.

Until the GOP reacquaints itself with adulthood, children like the Oath Keepers will continue to grow and flourish along with a willingness to see "turn(ing their) guns against their fellow soldiers" as an act of patriotism.

It's time Republican leaders ask themselves if they really believe a homegrown al Qaida is a good idea.