Free Republic

Group asks police and military to lay down arms in response to orders deemed unlawful. Depending on your perspective, the Oath Keepers are either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia. In the age of town halls, talk radio and tea parties, middle ground of opinion is hard to find. Launched in March by Las Vegan Stewart Rhodes, Oath Keepers bills itself as a nonpartisan group of current and retired law enforcement and military personnel who vow to fulfill their oaths to the Constitution. More specifically, the group's members, which number in the thousands, pledge to disobey orders...

What is on appearances possibly just another right wing publicity stunt is actually something that law enforcement and military commanders need to notice and to put in check. The "Oathkeepers" are a group supposedly dedicated to keeping the "Oath" to protect the Constitution. Fact is, they already took that oath, This new thing is an attempt to rile up disdain for the Obama Administration, masquerading as concern for American freedom. Who are the "Oathkeepers?" Groups of law enforcement and military personnel who swear a new oath of allegiance to ideals put forth by the group, not by consent of the...

Truly malignant ideas crop up in a democracy with the frequency of toadstools after a summer rain storm. Most of these ideas are dismissed by the great majority of citizens after public debate in one fashion or another. Some of the ideas hang on despite evidence to the contrary (sorry Texas was readmitted to the Union and the Income Tax was ratified by the requisite number of states) but attract no real following. Truly pernicious ideas, however, seem benign at first glance but in truth strike at the heart of our system of government. The “Oath Keeper” movement is one...