Oath Keepers organizer sees need to sound an alarm

Oath Keepers organizer sees need to sound an alarm

Rand Cardwell drums up support for an antigovernment group whose views illustrate the disconnect that has come to define popular political discourse in President Obama's first tumultuous year.


The first order of business was a recent report from the Southern Poverty Law Center, which called the Oath Keepers -- which claims more than 1,000 members nationwide -- a "particularly worrisome example" of a "virulently antigovernment 'Patriot' movement" that has been reinvigorated, in part, by the fact that the president is black.

The center documented angry videos that had been posted on the Oath Keepers website; in one of them, a man called Obama an "enemy of the state."

Cardwell betrayed only a hint of the exasperation that this line of criticism stirs in him. Nothing, he said, could be further from the truth. He served side by side in the Corps with African Americans. One of his best friends is a black guy.

"Our goal," he said, "is to support and defend the Constitution, and that's where it begins and ends at. . . . We're not a hate group. We're not a racist group. We're not calling for armed revolt against the government."

Founded this year by Stewart Rhodes, a Yale-educated lawyer and former staffer of Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), the group calls itself nonpartisan and features on its website a 1776 quote from George Washington warning of an incipient moment that would determine whether Americans will be "Freemen, or Slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their Houses, and Farms, are to be pillaged and destroyed."

"Such a time," the site says, "is near at hand again."

That kind of sentiment helps explain the disconnect that has come to define popular political discourse in Obama's first tumultuous year.

A vociferous group of Americans is warning that the country is not just headed in the wrong direction -- but over a cliff. They are mainstream media commentators, like Fox News' Glenn Beck. They are religious leaders, like "Bible Answer Man" Hank Hanegraaff, who told radio listeners last month that "socialism and fascism" were "slipping quietly through the back door."

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-oath-keepers18-2009sep18,0,4937225.story

"A vociferous group of Americans is warning that the country is not just headed in the wrong direction -- but over a cliff. They are mainstream media commentators, like Fox News' Glenn Beck. They are religious leaders, like "Bible Answer Man" Hank Hanegraaff, who told radio listeners last month that "socialism and fascism" were "slipping quietly through the back door."

President Obama is bringing the Village Idiots off the couch ..out into steets.

And, what does Time Mag do? They put bech on the cover with a softball article.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6571301

are on the verge of disappearing - that Obama's making it happen. Where did that come from. I don't remember these people making noise like this before. About crazy stuff. Is this the power of fox news? Is it a mental illness? A virus? Where the hell did these people come from all of a sudden?

strangely the militia movement went quiet, quieter than a church mouse, during the Bush years.


And yes, they were that crazy... if you can find it, read Fire Across the Plain...

John Birchers, Klansmen, Minutemen, etc...all the same buzzwords-patriotism, freedom, christianity, blah, blah, blah. I do think the election of a black president has brought them out of the woodwork. And the vitriol is greater than during the Clinton years.

Historically the kind of armed rebellion their ads are paying for on Fox and Limbaugh usually targets the wealthy in the heat of every rebellion I can recall reading about.

Seems kind of shortsighted to promote something that will make them a target as well.

Mr. Caldwell, I wish we could... but you are part of the village idiot division, albeit a dangerous village idiot.

that many of the policies Rand Cardwell worries about were instituted by GWB. Yet, Obama has become a better target for their anger and fear because
they have always identified with the Repubs.

I wonder if Mr Cardwell is on unemployment and if so how that sits with his belief system. I wonder when his wife is no longer insured and he is still unemployed
how attractive the public option will look.

in the American people to make them amenable to putting the right back in power. Their message during the Bush administration was "Only Conservatives can keep you safe!" They constantly raised the specter of fear of "Terrorists" fear of "French" fear of "Mexicans" fear of "Muslims" fear of "everything external." Only conservatives could be trusted to keep US safe.

But they are no longer in power, so the leadership has changed the focus of their fear. It is now fear of "Democrats" fear of "Liberals" fear of "Black Presidents" fear of "socialism" fear of "losing your gun" fear of "the government."

It is no accident that the leadership has not tried to reign in the crazies. The crazies are one prong of an attack that Conservatives are using to get back in power. (Another samll prong is the destruction of ACORN) They count on the crazies to put the fear back in Americans so they will let Conservatives back in power. Should the Crazies do the unthinkable and start something, Conservatives will ride a tide of fear into power and then they will put the crazies against the wall and machine gun them.

Racism is a tool. Violence is a tool. Secession is a tool. Fear is a tool. The goal is power.