Oathbreakers

By RoseAnn Salanitri

Our Constitution is clear about what the federal government can and cannot do. Article 1, Section 8[i], specifically defines the enumerated powers of the federal government. The rest of the Constitution was designed to keep tight reigns on government and to lay out with great specificity what the powers are of each branch of government; how our representatives are to be elected; their qualifications; and a whole range of other operating procedures within our government. Our Founders did this because they understood the propensity of all governments and the people that run them to become power-crazed resulting in the continuous degeneration of the liberties of their citizens. They also had the foresight to include 10 amendments to the Constitution that protected the rights of our citizens that they deemed extraordinarily important, and which our government was to both protect and not infringe upon; hence we call these amendments our Bill of Rights. 

But our Founders took it to another step that is often overlooked. In order to further protect our Constitution, they required that an oath of office be taken by our president, all members of congress, and all executive and judicial offices of both the federal and state governments to preserve and protect our Constitution. In Article VI, they wrote:

The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States. [(sic)(emphasis added)]

The oath the President takes states:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

The House of Representatives and the Senate take the following oath:

I 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; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.

Judges take the following oath:

“I do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I will administer justice without respect to persons, and do equal right to the poor and to the rich, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge and perform all the duties incumbent on me, according to the best of my abilities and understanding, agreeably to the Constitution, and laws of the United States. So help me God.”

Please notice in the emphasized part of Article VI quoted above, our representatives shall be bound by these oaths to support our Constitution against all enemies – both foreign and domestic.   The problem we are facing in America today is not that our Constitutional Republic no longer works; it’s that the oathbreakers representing us in all levels of government have not suffered any consequences for breaking their oaths. While they make feeble attempts to give the impression that they are trying to defend us from foreign enemies, they sweep the attacks by our domestic enemies under the rug – in part because many of them are in fact those enemies. And so We the People are left with a Constitutional Republic that bears little resemblance to the document ratified in 1787.

Our dilemma is simple.  How do we rid ourselves of the oathbreakers running and ruining our Constitutional Republic?

First we need to understand that circumventing the Constitution does not qualify as supporting and defending it. Circumventing the Constitution includes the signing of Executive Orders that create new laws that have not gone through the constitutional process of creation or approval.  Circumvention can also take on a more subtle form, such as creating new constitutional offices and departments that do not fall within the powers prescribed to the different branches of government as enumerated in Article 1, Section 8.  These departments include but are not limited to the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Department of Energy.  Any such creation represents a power grab that is not authorized within the Constitution.  The creation of these departments would require a constitutional amendment in order to be legitimate, which requires ratification by ¾ of the states, which has not been done. Those that have been charged with protecting our Constitution and have allowed these offices and departments to permeate our government are indeed guilty of being oathbreakers. Somehow they have forgotten that the primary purpose of our government is to protect our rights, not solve all our problems. 

In addition to all the individuals within all branches of government that have allowed this travesty to overwhelm our simple and effective Constitutional Republic – starting with Mr. Obama and many of his predecessors –  the process of ousting these oathbreakers needs to begin by identifying them.  The ousting can then come to fruition either through the election process or by special military escort (a/k/a a counter-coup).  If history continues to repeat itself, there is little hope that the ousting will occur at the time of election.  Too many elected officials have become skilled in the art of deception and have acquired the ability to charm their constituents into consenting to their serfdom. This skill has been supported by enormous sums of money and media compliance that allows them to continue their deception beyond all reason. Therefore a military escort may be our only hope, but unfortunately those who can accomplish such a counter-coup seem as deficient in the intestinal fortitude department as members of congress. 

However, we can do something. We can at least begin the process of identification.  Granted, it’s not much but it is a start.  While the task may be overwhelming, since we have fallen to such an incomprehensible depth, I suggest we start simply with the most recent assault on our Constitution on July 17, 2014, when many oathbreakers began the process of attempting to infringe upon our First Amendment right of free speech in the form of S.J. RES. 19[ii], which they attempted to disguise as an election law. They include the sponsor of the bill, Senator Tom Udall of New Mexico, and his co-sponsors: Mr. Bennet, Mr. Harkin, Mr. Schumer, Mrs. Shaheen, Mr. Whitehouse, Mr. Tester, Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Coons, Mr. King, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Wyden, Mr. Franken, Ms. Klobuchar, Mr. Udall of Colorado, Mr. Johnson of South Dakota, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Reed, Mr. Blumenthal, Mr. Heinrich, Mr. Merkley, Mrs. Feinstein, Mr. Begich, Mr. Cardin, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mrs. Hagan, Ms. Mikulski, Ms. Baldwin, Mr.  Markey, Ms. Warren, Mr. Brown, Mr. Walsh, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Reid, Ms. Hirono, Mr. Carper, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Sanders, Mr. Rockefeller, Ms. Stabenow, Mr. Booker, Ms. Heitkamp, Mr. Manchin, Mrs. McCaskill, Ms. Cantwell, and Mr. Nelson (Note: Democrats every single one). 

Unfortunately, even if this movement restricted itself to violations against the Bill of Rights, there would be far and few in between that could defend their position as an oathkeeper instead of an oathbreaker.  To them our collective response should be simple, one way or another, we need to  throw the bums out! They may have nice smiles, wear nice clothes, send out expensive glossies, give a good speech and tell you just what you want to hear, but they are bums none-the-less and they more properly belong in Hollywood than in government.

While purging our government of all of our oathbreakers may be nothing more than an unrealistic dream; it is not impossible.  I prefer this unrealistic dream to the nightmare that will end in the total destruction of America.   When will we realize that this nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal is about to be swept from this earth?  We need a plan.  We need guts.  God knows there is ample cause. But is there ample time and ample guts? God knows that too. But if we continue to put our heads in the sand, eventually we will find we have been buried alive – without so much as a whimper.