By Patrick J. Buchanan
In the brief age of Obama, we have had “truthers,” “birthers,” Tea Party activists and town-hall dissenters.
Comes now, the “Oath Keepers.” And who might they be?
Writes Alan Maimon in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Oath Keepers, depending on where one stands, are “either strident defenders of liberty or dangerous peddlers of paranoia.”
Formed in March, they are ex-military and police who repledge themselves to defend the Constitution, even if it means disobeying orders. If the U.S. government ordered law enforcement agencies to violate Second Amendment rights by disarming the people, Oath Keepers will not obey.
“The whole point of Oath Keepers is to stop a dictatorship from ever happening here,” says founding father Stewart Rhodes, an ex-Army paratrooper and Yale-trained lawyer. “My focus is on the guys with the guns, because they can’t do it without them.
“We say if the American people decide it’s time for a revolution, we’ll fight with you.”
Prediction: Brother Rhodes is headed for cable stardom.
And if the Pelosi-Reid progressives went postal over town-hall protesters, calling them “un-American,” “Nazis” and “evil-mongers,” one can imagine what they will do with the Oath Keepers.
As with Jimmy Carter’s long range psychoanalysis of Joe Wilson, the reflexive reaction of the mainstream media will likely be that these are militia types, driven to irrationality because America has a black president.
Yet, the establishment’s reaction seems more problematic for the republic than anything the Oath Keepers are up to. For our political and media elite seem to have lost touch with the nation and to be wedded to a vision of America divorced from reality.
Progressives are the folks who, in the 1960s, could easily understand that urban riots that took scores of lives and destroyed billions in property were an inevitable reaction to racism, poverty and despair. They could empathize with the rage of campus radicals who burned down the ROTC building and bombed the Pentagon.
The “dirty, immoral war in Vietnam” explains why the “finest generation we have ever produced” is behaving like this, they said. We must deal with the “root causes” of social disorder.
Yet, they cannot comprehend what would motivate Middle America to distrust its government, for it surely does, as Ron Brownstein reports in the National Journal:
“Whites are not only more anxious, but also more alienated. Big majorities of whites say the past year’s turmoil has diminished their confidence in government, corporations and the financial industry … Asked which institution they trust most to make economic decisions in their interest, a plurality of whites older than 30 pick ‘none’—a grim statement.”
Is all this due to Obama’s race?
Even Obama laughs at that. As he told David Letterman, I was already black by the time I was elected. And he not only got a higher share of the white vote than Kerry or Gore, a third of white voters, who said in August 2008 that race was an important consideration in voting, said they were going to vote for Obama.
With black voters going 24 to 1 for Obama, he almost surely won more votes than he lost because of his race.
Moreover, the alienation and radicalization of white America began long before Obama arrived. He acknowledged as much when he explained Middle Pennsylvanians to puzzled progressives in that closed-door meeting in San Francisco.
Referring to the white working-class voters in the industrial towns decimated by job losses, Obama said: “They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
Yet, we had seen these folks before. They were Perotistas in 1992, opposed NAFTA in 1993, and blocked the Bush-Kennedy McCain amnesty in 2007.
In their lifetimes, they have seen their Christian faith purged from schools their taxes paid for, and mocked in movies and on TV. They have seen their factories shuttered in the thousands and their jobs outsourced in the millions to Mexico and China. They have seen trillions of tax dollars go for Great Society programs, but have seen no Great Society, only rising crime, illegitimacy, drug use and dropout rates.
They watch on cable TV as illegal aliens walk into their country, are rewarded with free educations and health care, and take jobs at lower pay than American families can live on—then carry Mexican flags in American cities and demand U.S. citizenship.
They see Wall Street banks bailed out as they sweat their next paycheck, then read that bank profits are soaring, and the big bonuses for the brilliant bankers are back. Neither they nor their kids ever benefited from affirmative action, unlike Barack and Michelle Obama.
They see a government in Washington that cannot balance its books, win our wars or protect our borders. The government shovels out trillions to Fortune 500 corporations and banks to rescue the country from a crisis created by the government and Fortune 500 corporations and banks.
America was once their country. They sense they are losing it. And they are right.
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This nation has been beat down, cheated, threatened, extorted and used by those who would profit at another man's loss. Our politicians in general are for the most part legalized cheats and could care less about the Constitution, as they only pay lip service to the document when it fits their plans. I remember when the "old" Soviet Union fell apart and though to myself that the U.S. is on top of the world. However, in 20 years, Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama, along with the legions of legislators have perpetuated a crime agains the Constitution and the memory of the founders that struggled so hard to obtain this magnum opus of governence and freedom.
I have not forgot the scions of the black robe who legislate from the bench, usurping their authority and exceeding their job description. I fear that the Sun that Benjamin Franklin mused about during the infancy of this country is now beginning to set. At that point, we were entering spring after coming out of the winter of monarchy and oppression. We have weathered several seasons and are now, I think, entering into the winter of our discontent, as we slide into the witchery of socialism, the vampirism of legalism and the Frankenstein of social engineering.
I enjoyed your column, Mr. Buchanan. I am going to be an optimist, and toil on in support of freedom and liberty for all of us. Americans need to turn off the TV and empower themselves by getting involved in the process, and standing for something. If enough people care, we can still save the ship. God Bless us all.
Pat, what a sad epitaph for our nation. When I read this column my heart sank. I ask, how did the American people ever let this get out of control and why did the leaders of this country allow it to happen? Over the years, many of us put our faith and trust into our government because we were hard at work with raising families, making a livable income and dealing with normal everyday occurances in our lives. We left it to the pro's. Now, anger and frustration are eating up our lives over the many ill's this country faces. The psychology of " flight or fight"
has crept into our minds and spirit. It reminds me of the words of Shakespeare in Hamlet. "Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing, end them".
The answer is clear. Many Americans are in for a good fight….peaceful, I hope and pray….but the battle must now be fought.
What in the world are you folks so frightened of?
Are you afraid that the Federal government might seize you off the street, declare you "an enemy combatant," and lock you up for as long as they want, without trial? Are you afraid they might unilaterally declare that might torture you, or anyone else, if they think it's important for national security? Are you afraid that the federal government might listen in on your phone calls, emails, and other communications without a warrant? Are you afraid that they might explode the Federal deficit, spending billions they don't have, and saddling our children with the debt? Are you afraid the Govt might plunge this nation into an expensive, years long destabilizing war on false pretenses?
I don't blame you if you are, but these were all policies of the prior administration, and I don't remember a lot of complaining about it from the angry right wing. To the extent that the Obama Administration has not ended these policies, I share your frustration.
But it is astounding to me that so many people seem to believe that our constitution is under attack because a person they don't agree with was duly elected President of the United States and is pushing forward the policies he campaigned on. Last I checked, that happens just about every four or eight years.
And by the way, the last I checked, Obama has said he believes the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to own guns, and has advanced no legislation or initiatives of any kind to do anything to curb gun ownership. At all. I would suggest at least waiting until he does something — or indicates a desire to do it — before you grabbing your weapons and swearing to shoot.
Anybody who agrees with Pat's article on Oath Keepers, MUST read "It Could Happen Here" by Bruce Judson
Pat, yes you are correct, the traditional USA is falling away rapidly. It will not return either, the USA is now under the control of the international monetarists, and their goal is the pursuit of profit above all else. We were lied to, as Perot tried to point out back in '92, by the corporate cartels who saw a way to enrich themselves beyond the dreams of avarice, by de-industrialising the USA while maximising profits. To enable them to do this, their hired henchmen in the congress did the dirty work vis a vis unfair, unbalanced and irresponsible trade legislation. We can thank the "permacrats " for this. Now these financial interests suck the public dry of its last few dollars as a result of their criminally irresponsible, irrational and desperate, investment practices. This talk of a "jobless recovery" is an affront and an utter farce. Our currency is being devalued, and the nation is stuck in intractable wars, yes Pat we are headed down. A long way to go down too.
Yagur, you recited the left wing catechism of post-9/11 threats to liberty — much of which alarmed me too. But threats to liberty come in many forms. No one ideology can watch out for them all. So here's the American pact. Liberals watch the front door, conservatives watch the back. Liberals watch out for police state and theocracy, conservatives watch out for the state seizing irresistible amounts of economic power. Liberals watch the executive branch, conservatives watch the judicial branch. You say conservatives didn't complain about Bush. But the left can't conceive that checks and balances apply to the courts too, not just to the Executive. Let's say, both sides have their assigned watches. And thank God for that. You sound quite negligent re the state adding enormous corporate power to the law-making power, the police power, the taxing power, the judicial power, and control of the military. Its too much power. It's inherently dangerous.
And no, I hope the Oath Keepers do not wait until the threat is urgent. It's one of the most basic American principles — we don't wait until its too late. We don't let tyrants plant their seed in the soil.
By the way, the President has said so many things he doesn't believe, I put no faith in anything that comes out of his mouth. The slanders against heartland Townhallers show how little he meant his 2004 convention speech.
I don't go back to Nixon, but as a very noisy liberal activist, I've never felt personally targeted by a Republican White House or House Speaker in the way that Biden, Jimmy Carter and Pelosi have slandered dissenting Americans. Biden said "calm down or you'll be arrested!" You're not alarmed when a former President plays the race card to stifle dissent? When the White House attacks a news station? You're asleep at the switch, my friend.
Great article Pat!……………..Far too many don't remember the society prior to LBJ's "Great Society"?……..And assume it was worse?
It wasn't……Which is why it is refered to as "Happy Days"………….But Unbridled Corporatocracy and Marxism never sleep and fight behind the scenes for control. Progressives should take a step back, do some reading, and understand the difference in Paleoconservatism and Neoconservatism? Paleos have actually been criticizing both liberals and Neocons for decades! (We no longer have a voice in the GOP(Gutted Our Principles)……………..Like Libertarians, we endorse neither Marxism or Empire, and embrace the conservatism principles of Jefferson………………….It was a great read PAT.