The ideology of the Oath Keepers most closely resembles that of the militia movement, whose adherents believe that the United States is collaborating with a one-world tyrannical conspiracy called the New World Order to strip Americans of their rights—starting with their right to keep and bear arms. [...] They are driving us to it.” Indeed, in 2014, during the confrontation in Nevada on the ranch of Cliven Bundy between the federal government and anti-government extremists supporting Bundy, the Oath Keepers at the ranch became convinced they would be subjected to a military drone strike and pulled out of the standoff—to the anger of militia leaders and others at the ranch. [...] Rhodes has said the purpose of the Second Amendment is to “preserve the ability of the people, who are the militia, to provide for their own security” and “to preserve the military capacity of the American people to resist tyranny and violations of their rights by oath breakers within government.” He has also said that semi-automatic, military pattern rifles are the single most important kind of w. [...] Oath Keeper Tactics In addition to peddling conspiracy theories and paranoia, the Oath Keepers use a number of strategies to stay in the forefront of the anti-government extremist movement in the United States. [...] Mack was influenced by the doctrine of the Posse Comitatus, a loosely-organized extreme anti-government movement that blossomed in the 1970s and 1980s, whose core belief was that the county was the highest level of government because it was the level of government closest to the people.
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- 14
- Published in
- United States of America
