Oath Keepers founder addresses preparedness, Constitution
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RONAN — Americans have six months to a year to “get squared away” with a supply of food, fuel, weapons and money — gold or silver, not cash — Oath Keepers founder and director Stewart Rhodes told a crowd of 75 to 100 people at the Ronan Community Center Dec. 7.
“This is what a free people do … If you don’t have those things, you’re weak,” he said.
Rhodes, a former Polson resident who now lives in Kalispell, was the featured speaker at Citizens Acting for Liberty’s monthly event, and addressed topics from Oath Keepers’ mission to preparing for what he said is an impending U.S. economic crisis. Oath Keepers is a nonpartisan association of military, police, National Guard, fire fighters and veterans who focus on upholding their oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. The organization has drawn fire for promoting what some see as radical conservative views similar to those of the Tea Party, but Rhodes argues that defending the Constitution is not an extreme idea.
The domestic enemy of a tyrannical federal government is the most underrated foe of the Constitution, Rhodes explained. That means anyone serious about his oath must be ready to disobey any unconstitutional orders, too, he said. Oath Keepers has a list of 10 orders they won’t obey, including orders to disarm the American people; to detain Americans as unlawful enemy combatants; to impose martial law; to confiscate citizens’ property; or to “invade and subjugate any state that asserts its sovereignty.”
Rhodes said he started Oath Keepers after working on Ron Paul’s presidential campaign and realizing that it wasn’t going to be possible to put a true defender of the Constitution in the White House in 2008.
“So I said, ‘What can I do?’” he explained.
He decided that educating police and military personnel on the importance of their oath of service was the next best thing. After an April 2009 oath-renewal ceremony on Lexington Green in Lexington, Mass., the group gained national attention, and now claims chapters in all 50 states. A 2004 Yale Law graduate, Rhodes won the school’s prestigious Miller prize for a paper he wrote on the Bill of Rights called “Solving the Puzzle of Enemy Combatant Status,” and is also a veteran — while serving as an Army paratrooper, he was injured in a night jump, which effectively ended his military career.
But his responsibility to fulfill his oath of service will never end, Rhodes reminded veterans at last week’s presentation.
“You swore to defend the Constitution, and you have to do it,” he said.
The Founding Fathers’ design of strong sovereign states “has been turned on its head,” Rhodes said, and veterans should accept a personal mission to restore the country to the institution the Founders envisioned. Veterans should take the lead in forming a militia — or home guard, as Rhodes prefers because of negative connotations of the term “militia” — and should help get their neighbors “squared away.”
“Do what (the federal government doesn’t) want you to do, and what they do not want you to do is resurrect the militia,” he said.
And citizens should ensure a way to defend themselves sooner rather than later.
“You don’t know how long you have until the economy collapses,” Rhodes said.
Rhodes recommends a two-tiered approach to getting out from under the “upside-down pyramid” of a federal government given to overregulation. One approach is through public institutions, using legislative avenues to change laws that don’t support the Constitution. Private action is also important — citizens should do what they can to get themselves “squared away” and to help their communities get prepared for the hard times Rhodes warned are coming. A free people prepared for the worst don’t have to depend on handouts from the government to survive, he explained.
