It’s called Oath of Office or Oath of Enlistment. It’s just a bunch of words that one needs to say in order to get a Really Good Job…or is it?
The words have some variation among the Really Good Jobs that use them, such as the President, members of Congress, members of the military, state Governors, state Legislators, appointed government officials, and some police officers. Typically, however, the Oath of Office contains the concept, if not the exact words, I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
A quick look at one source of definitions reveals:
en·e·my
noun
- a person who is actively opposed or hostile to someone or something.
- a hostile nation or its armed forces or citizens, especially in time of war.
- a thing that harms or weakens something else.
The someone or something in definitions 1 and 3 applies to the American public and what we have come to know as the American way of life (even if leaving out the American Dream, which has already been decimated).
Given that definition, we find that protecting against all enemies is not limited to some other country that the government has declared to be an enemy so that military action can be pursued. Enemy can include
- Those who pursue the elimination of environmental protection,
- Those who pursue the elimination of public education,
- Those who pursue the elimination of the general availability of healthcare,
- Those who pursue the elimination of social services and programs that have generally benefited society and contributed to what we know as the American way of life,
- Those who pursue the limitation of the ability of journalists to report on the activities of the government,
- Those who pursue the violent repression of dissenting viewpoints,
- Those who pursue voter suppression and/or other means of election fraud,
- Those who use their government positions to accumulate personal wealth.
Those acts are either directly in violation of the constitution or by definition are enemy actions. Both are covered by the oath of office of many government positions, including the military.
The Oath of Office is generally treated as the pro forma words needed to get a Really Good Job. However, violation of the oath of office is, in many cases, literally a crime.
The application of the words in the Oath of Office is not limited to the individuals perpetrating unconstitutional or enemy (be definition) acts. Protect and defend includes doing anything possible to prevent others from violating the constitution. The roughly 4,000 US military veterans who went to Standing Rock to help protect the Native American and other protestors against the police and mercenary forces involved in the illegal construction of a pipeline, illegal suppression of speech, illegal suppression of journalism, and so on, were being true to their oath. Most of them who said anything publicly said exactly that.
The application of the Oath of Office applies to those in government and the military who sit idly by while police brutalize and even kill civilians, prevent expression of ideas (e.g., protest movements), obstruct and limit the freedom of journalists to document the activity of the government and government agencies, ignore existing laws in order to promote private infrastructure projects, imprison political opponents without charge or on false charges, imprison political opponents in cruel conditions, and so on. This is all happening now, all around us.
We must hold all of our elected and appointed officials, regardless of party affiliation, accountable for the crime of violation of the Oath of Office whenever possible. This applies not only to those who are engaged in the unconstitutional activities. It applies to those who see and know about the unconstitutional activities and to the activities the fall under the definition of enemy and fail to do anything about it.
We pay our elected officials quite well in exchange for their faithful execution of their duties, which includes those contained in the Oath of Office. That 4,000 military veterans have the integrity to do so on their own, without the benefit of a Really Good Job (which, in terms of government positions, they never had in the first place), and even give up their not so good jobs in order to participate in an action against enemies, as required by their oath, under harsh conditions, is remarkable. Why do we not expect those we pay to fulfill the Oath of Office to do so?
Insist on that protection against ALL enemies, foreign and domestic. Demand accountability and compliance!
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Thos