Oath Keepers as travesty: ‘Patriot’ group’s Trump-loving authoritarianism may affect election by ⁦ @DavidNeiwert⁩ https://www.dailykos.com/story/2020/10/6/1984210/-Oath-Keepers-as-travesty-Patriot-group-s-Trump-loving-authoritarianism-may-affect-election

‘the Oath Keepers’ servile authoritarianism on Trump’s behalf starkly contrasts with Rhodes’ rhetoric during the Obama administration. Go back to 2009, and you can find him pledging to “prevent a dictatorhship in the United States”’

“The Oath Keepers’ alignment with Trump came early and often ..& in typically paranoiac ways: ...among the more prominent promoters of far-right conspiracy theories...”

“conspiracy theories—which later metastasized into the current mainstream-right narrative depicting antifa and leftists as violent Marxists intent on destroying America—claiming that “Marxist coups” against Trump were in the offing:”

“first, during Trump’s inauguration in January 2017, and a few months later, in November 2017, amid the aftermath of the white-nationalist violence involving antifa at Charlottesville, Virginia, two months before.”

“Rhodes also insisted he wanted nothing to do with white supremacists and distanced himself from the militia concept”

“In reality, the Oath Keepers brand has been associated with violent, threatening extremists from the very outset”

“One of the first prominent members of the Oath Keepers..Charles Dyer... represented the group at early tea party events in 2009, when he wasn’t producing ominous videos urging his fellow “Patriots” to prepare themselves for armed civil war and violent resistance to Obama admin”

“Dyer was arrested for raping his daughter and eventually convicted. Police found a missile launcher in his personal armory. Stewart Rhodes and the Oath Keepers claimed he actually was never really a member and distanced themselves from Dyer as fast they could.”

“Rhodes has always attempted to present Oath Keepers as a mainstream organization, but the façade was thoroughly exposed in 2009 by Justine Sharrock at MJ, whose in-depth report revealed a cadre of armed & angry extremists with paranoid ideas and unstable dispositions behind ...”

“the claims of normalcy and civic-mindedness, with the patina of authority that having military and law-enforcement veterans on your membership rolls can provide.”

“The Oath Keepers played a prominent role in the 2014 Bundy ranch armed standoff in Nevada. A significant number of Oath Keepers responded to Cliven Bundy’s initial plea for support that April in his conflict with the Bureau of Land Management...”

“and so the organization wound up playing a key role both in organizing the armed resistance to federal officers in mid-April, as well as in the nearly lethal mess into which the scene devolved later that month, in the weeks after the initial standoff.”

“The Oath Keepers were also present at some of the earliest far-right rallies on the West Coast in 2017”

“At the Berkeley event, Rhodes spoke to the crowd in front of an alt-right “Kekistan” banner, and he was followed on the dais by notorious white nationalist Brittany Pettibone.”

The Berkeley “protest was organized by the Proud Boys, and featured the open participation of a number of white-nationalist groups, including Identity Evropa and the Rise Above Movement.”

“Rhodes’ vision for the Oath Keepers appears to be to attempt to legitimize their paranoid vision not just by distancing them from overt racism, but also by becoming increasingly associated with the Trump campaign.”

“The endpoint of this vision is for Oath Keepers to become an unofficial adjunct paramilitary force that could be deployed by...Trump at his own discretion—“

“Rhodes was explicit about this when he announced plans to provide a kind of specialized “Spartan” training program to prepare Oath Keepers for combat with “antifa” and whatever evil leftists might be lurking out there.”

“The danger that groups like the Oath Keepers—&... affiliated street-brawling gangs like the Proud Boys & Patriot Prayer—is the rising likelihood..that they will bring their tactics of weaponized intimidation into play on Trump’s behalf during the coming election” & afterwards

Fun fact: Rhodes was a volunteer coordinator for Congressman Ron Paul (R-Ru)