Help me out here: Weren't the Oath Keepers originally founded because they were convinced Obama

[ck4829]

would go dictator and their whole shtick was "We're not going to obey any orders from a dictator"?

I mean, there really were conservatives tearing their hair out, biting their fingernails, and losing sleep at night because they thought Obama would force healthcare and gay marriage on them.

So it's just funny...

Skip ahead to 2021, they're salivating (And honestly, they were probably sexually aroused) at the idea of being government henchmen for a Trump coup.

There's a quote commonly misattributed to Abraham Lincoln, but it was said by Robert Ingersoll; abolitionist, lawyer, and orator. He said something to the effect that "If you want to measure a man's character, don't see what he does in the face of adversity, see what he does when he is given power."

The Oath Keepers failed that test, miserably.

[Beachnutt]

1. Here in texas the magaloons

are all signing up for Obamacare that they all voted against...

[KS Toronado]

3. I like your term "magaloons"

Fits that crowd very nicely.

[SheltieLover]

7. Of course, just as they love union jobs & benefits, but hate unions

The cognitive dissonance in their heads must sound like freight trains!

[Claire Oh Nette]

31. They want the perks w/o the work

They do love union jobs and union wages and benefits. They just don't want to pay union dues, or any other taxes.

These are the same idiots who think they can all manage their own Social Security in a 401(k) to make $200 a month turn into a million dollars by the time they're ready to retire. And the same crowd that envies the nurse or teacher's pension, while having to live on their own paltry 401K and social security.

[librechik]

39. Unions require that everyone be treated equally, and these rebels all want special treatment

for themselves. And Obama was a black man. Dictator or not, they are furious to have to defer to him or anyone else really. Especially a black man.

[Claire Oh Nette]

41. This...

The Republican Party had their missiles locked and loaded on Hilary for 2008. They stored their misogyny and switched to racism right quick with zero effort on their part.

A Black man, a particularly smart, erudite, charismatic, funny, and good looking Black man with a single mom, busted his ass to maximize his talents an gifts, which many of these yahoos did not because they didn't have to.

When Hillary did run then in 2016, all that misogyny stored away came out, in addition to horrific racist backlash--The TIDFG is the first president "elected" *because* he was a white man.

Watched Best of Enemies Last night. Very good. Reminder the past lives right along side the present.

[

]

[brewens]

2. I think it was Limbaugh that said something like, mark my words, if Obama wins,

it's gonna be payback for whiteboy!

[gab13by13]

4. Bingo,

one needs to be a racist to join a militia, IMO.

[paleotn]

20. So the late Limpballs admitted there was something to pay back?

Interesting view into their minds. As the old saying goes....Listen to what they say. They'll tell you exactly who they are and what they think.

[Gore1FL]

29. It's consistent.

That crowd loves to complain about the privileges they deny having being taken away.

[wnylib]

30. Racists know that there is reason

for POC to be angry. It's why they fear POC and use that fear to justify their actions.

[paleotn]

38. Exactly. If not conscientiously, then subconsciously.

Thus the whole "nothing to see here. move along. move along." about antebellum US history. And their belief that CRT has no basis in modern America, all the while, many are as racist as the 19th century. It's just not cool or legal to lynch people of color anymore.

[certainot]

28. they're all fucking ditttoheads

limbaugh and sons caused more death and destruction than hitler and stalin w/global warming delay alone.

[Jon King]

5. Notice no army came to defend their leader.

This notion that there are millions of well armed guys waiting to take over the country is the stuff of internet chat rooms. Trump left office, nothing. Trump gets called for depositions, nothing. The Oath Keeper leader dragged in and out of court, nothing.

Its all nonsense, the only guys willing to do more than just type on their computers were arrested on 1-6. There is no mass violence coming,

The real threat is the Supreme Court, electoral college system, and Senate system that gives power to the minority.

[zipplewrath]

14. A built in flaw

You're right that the Senate, and its influence on the courts is the real threat to this country. But the reality is that it is a built in flaw. The intent was never to empower the minority, but merely to protect it.

[reACTIONary]

23. The Senate was conceived as an...

... "upper house", an aristocratic institution, as a break on popular democracy. The "minority" to be protected was the minority who already were established, not a despised minority being punished by populist tendencies.

The aristocratic purpose was abandoned, but the filibuster preserves some of that intent.

[dwayneb]

15. No mass violence from the Oath Keepers - BUT

It's not the green-teethers with their pop guns out in the hinterlands that we need to be worried about.

It's the US military. When and if Trump or his successor rise to power again whether by direct election or through a legislative coup, the real test will be where the loyalty of the military lies - with the Constitution or with the despot in charge.

Plenty of folks in the US military that would be ready willing and able to point their guns at American citizens, once they have been identified as "enemies of the state".

[paleotn]

21. Bingo. Exactly correct.

A few nutters running around with off the shelf firearms are an annoyance, not an existential threat. Who holds the reins of the most power military force the world has ever seen is THE existential threat.

[reACTIONary]

22. +100, agreed! nt.

[hurple]

37. Right

And they were so excited and thrilled by the few thousand that showed up to the insurrection rally.

If they had taken the building as planned, then millions would have risen up to take them down.

Those people seem to have no sense of scale (in addition the their other shortcomings)

[Itchinjim]

6. Dictators are bad unless they're the dictators,

In which case dictators are good.

[SheltieLover]

8. Great quote.

"If you want to measure a man's character, don't see what he does in the face of adversity, see what he does when he is given power."

Truer words have never been spoken, imho.

[PatSeg]

9. Oh yes, Obama was going to take away their guns

and put people in detainment camps. Be afraid, be very afraid!

[doc03]

10. According to them Obama was a dictator because of his Executive Orders. Every president uses

executive orders but under Obama it was tyranny and unconstitutional. I heard that constantly when Obama was president.
But with Trump they suddenly became constitutional.

[yardwork]

11. That's the hypocrisy of the entire Republican Party.

It's a bunch of authoritarians. All this talk about freedom and rights is just window dressing.

[Historic NY]

12. They only like bits of the constitution

they didn't read the 14th amendment, it didn't mention arms.

[The Jungle 1]

13. We need to get way more serious about civics education!

The election losers do not understand what Democracy is.
Yo you lost so shut up and sit down.

[fightforfreedom]

16. They were founded because many white people couldn't handle a half black

president. Plain and simple, they are racists. The Tea Party (now the freedom caucus) was and is racist party. Make America White Again should be their slogan.

[gab13by13]

17. Yup, Occam's Razor.

[AllyCat]

18. This right here!! 8 years of a competent black President

just put the racists over the edge.

[paleotn]

19. Depends on the dictator. Point is, they don't believe in democracy. Never have....

Or the peaceful free flow and debate of ideas. It's their way or the highway. In short, they're fascists. I know we bandy that term around, but check the boxes below and see if I'm right. They're in perfect league with the theocrats on this.

?w=320&ssl=1

[CaptainTruth]

25. I keep using that list & reminding people that Trump & the GOP did...

...or tried to do (& are still actively trying to do) every item on the list.

[AllaN01Bear]

26. dont forget ," hes going to take away our guns " heaven forbid.

[Claire Oh Nette]

34. THis was the recruitment tool

The Oath Keepers weren't going to follow unconstitutional orders, like confiscating their guns. They've been shouting about how the democrats are coming for your guns since the 90s. More guns than ever.

They just morphed into all-purpose fascist, racist domestic terrorists.

THEY ARE NOT MILITIAS. THEY REPORT TO NO AUTHORITY BUT THEIR OWN.

THEY ARE ARMED GANGS. I wish the media would stop legitimizing them. They are not the modern day militia--they are just another gang of scared white peckerwoods.

[FailureToCommunicate]

27. And by "dictator" they mean Black.

[slater71]

33. You are right.

[slater71]

32. No. They were not going to take orders from a black man.

[IronLionZion]

35. They were founded in March 2009

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oath_Keepers

To defend America from a tyrannical federal government by encouraging soldiers and police to refuse to follow orders. They felt President Obama was illegitimate because brown people can't be born in the US. And apparently Biden stole the election from Trump somehow

Fun fact, both Obama and Trump had one immigrant parent. But somehow Obama is Kenyan. And it's "more American" for Drumpf to be Scottish and have a Slovenian immigrant first lady. The difference is black and white. Same reason why the Evangelical church going Obama is Muslim, but the deeply sinful pornstar banging twice-divorced Trump is the hero of evangelicals and family values.

[Crataegus]

36. They hated Obama

I remember watching these jackasses start up oath keepers online.
They actually believed that they could recruit enough active duty military to arrest Pres Obama.
The website was open to the public and they were begging active military to join.
All you had to do was endorse their little oath an you were in.
They were recruiting traitors from the very beginning.

[halfulglas]

40. They are cousins to the original 2009 Tea Partiers.

I remember besides the ridiculous appearing Tea Partiers with the tea bags hanging from their hats many carried the deeply offensive toy chimps and monkeys hanging from cords fashioned into nooses from sticks. Oh, they thought they were being so funny. They pretended they were sending an economic message. The message was really about power.

[Nevilledog]

42. One of the first deep dives into the Oathkeepers from 10 years ago.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216244848