The Oath-Keepers: Right-Wing Domestic Terrorists Waiting to Happen

http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/03/the-oath-keepers-right-wing-domestic-terrorists-waiting-to-happen/

If you aren’t yet familiar with the Oath Keepers, here are a few graphs of background by Justine Sharrock, writing for MoJo:

Founded last April 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 that includes Tea Partiers, Birthers, and 912ers. Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and Pat Buchanan have all sung its praises, and in December, a grassroots summit it helped organize drew such prominent guests as representatives Phil Gingrey and Paul Broun, both Georgia Republicans.

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.

And they’re prepared to commit acts of violence if need be. They’re armed, trained, and hopped up on an outsized Glenn-Beckian sense of grievance. Scary people.

All terrorists are animated by a belief that they’re serving a higher purpose, and the Oath Keepers no doubt think that their dedication to the Constitution makes them ‘freedom fighters.’ To understand why they’re common terrorists waiting to happen, one needs only to grasp the single most important, bedrock principle upon which the whole Constitution was built: the separation of the powers. The founders understood that it was the most important wall against tyranny. One hopes that every school-kid gets the whole checks-and-balances thing.

MORE at the link ---

Ya mean that they might refuse to help a president start an illegal war?

That would reassure me more if these same guys hadn't made it clear they pick and choose which parts of the constitution they follow.

I mean where were they during those free speech zones? Or when illegal wiretapping was first discovered? Or Habeus Corpus suspended for "some people"?

Are they up in arms over Gingrich's idea to us egovernment power to stop one group's right to property and freedom of religion? They don't look like it.

But somehow we might get universal health care, that sets them off?!