Oath Keeper Testimonial by Former Army Reservist

An Oath

by Joe

I was once an Army Reservist. I remember the Oath I took when I enlisted.
In the Armed Forces EXCEPT the National Guard (Army or Air):

I, (NAME), do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.

An enemy of the United States is everyone who lives in the U.S.A that does not believe in our Constitution. Those who think that spending pork on their constituents violates the spirit if not the letter of the Constitution. Our federal government is supposed to do certain things. They are enumerated in the Constitution:

The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Imposts and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States;
To borrow Money on the credit of the United States;
To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes;
To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization, and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankruptcies throughout the United States;
To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;
To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin of the United States;
To establish Post Offices and post Roads;
To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
To constitute Tribunals inferior to the supreme Court;
To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and Offences against the Law of Nations;
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;--And
To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the foregoing Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Government of the United States, or in any Department or Officer thereof.

These are the things that Congress may do. Additionally, Congress is tasked with protecting all the rights of the citizens of the various states. To assist in this the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution. These are rights that the founding fathers determined came as a natural part of living and that no government had the privilege of violating them. In addition, the BOR indicates that there are others not enumerated that Congress must not transgress. (See the 9 & 10 Amendments). The Fourteenth Amendment applies the rights of citizenship to all natural and naturalized persons. Effectively this should have applied the BOR to the States. However there is still some dispute over the reach of the amendment.

So how does my voting record stack up against the oath I took and the promises made by the officials I helped elect? Have I campaigned AGAINST those who would violate the Constitution. If I have I ever voted FOR these enemies have I violated my oath?

Each of us must determine who is the true representative of our Republic. We each must individually campaign for and vote for only those candidates who honor our constitution.

This is not limited to national elections but has to be a local issue also. If the local politicians won't follow the LAW then who can we trust to be leaders? We are incharge of our destiny, we must not allow the opportunity to be squandered!

The above was originally posted on Joe’s site at

http://east-tn-thoughts.blogspot.com/

NOTE from Stewart:

I will not be making it a habit to comment on someone’s testimonial regarding their oath, but since Joe invited me to add any comments I may have, I will only add this quote from James Madison in support of what Joe wrote:

The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State Governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce …The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects, which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberty, and property of the people; and the internal order, improvement and prosperity of the State. - James Madison, Federalist 45

We now have over us in Washington DC a government that is precisely the opposite of what Madison described. It is a government that claims the power under a grossly expanded power to "regulate commerce." to legislate over the most minute details of our lives, our liberty, and our property, in all cases whatsoever, whether it be a farmer growing wheat for his own consumption, not for sale; a woman growing an herb in her own backyard for her own use, not for sale; or a man making his own firearm for his own use, not for commercial sale, and not for interstate commerce.

The concept of dual sovereignty and a national government limited to only certain powers has been abandoned, just as the British Parliament and Crown abandoned any such notions in the years leading up to the Revolution.

As our Declaration of Independence noted, one of the causes of the Revolution was the British government “declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.”

History is repeating itself.

Stewart Rhodes