{"id":41407,"date":"2025-12-30T07:15:00","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T15:15:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=41407"},"modified":"2026-02-08T07:34:52","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T15:34:52","slug":"the-sacred-pledge-that-will-power-the-relaunch-of-far-right-militia-oath-keepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-sacred-pledge-that-will-power-the-relaunch-of-far-right-militia-oath-keepers\/","title":{"rendered":"The \u2018sacred\u2019 pledge that will power the relaunch of far-right militia Oath Keepers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Alexander Lowie<\/a>, University of Florida<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers<\/a>, a far-right militia, announced in November 2025<\/a> that he will relaunch the group after it disbanded following his prison sentence in 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy<\/a> and other crimes committed during the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In January 2025, President Donald Trump granted clemency<\/a> to the over 1,500 defendants convicted of crimes connected to the storming of the Capitol.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump did not pardon Rhodes \u2013 or some others found guilty of the most serious crimes on Jan. 6. He instead commuted Rhodes\u2019 sentence to time served<\/a>. Commutation only reduces the punishment<\/a> for a crime, whereas a full pardon erases a conviction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a political anthropologist<\/a> I study the Patriot movement<\/a>, a collection of anti-government right-wing groups<\/a> that include the Proud Boys<\/a>, Oath Keepers and Moms for Liberty<\/a>. I specialize in alt-right<\/a> beliefs, and I have interviewed people active in groups that participated in the Capitol riot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhodes\u2019 plans to relaunch the Oath Keepers, largely composed of current and former military veterans and law enforcement officers<\/a>, is important because it will serve as an outlet for those who have felt lost since his imprisonment. The group claimed it had over 40,000 dues-paying members<\/a> at the height of its membership during Barack Obama\u2019s presidency. I believe that many of these people will return to the group, empowered by the lack of any substantial punishment resulting from the pardons for crimes committed on Jan. 6.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In my interviews, I\u2019ve found that military veterans are treated as privileged members of the Patriot movement. They are honored for their service and military training. And that\u2019s why I believe many former Oath Keepers will rejoin the group \u2013 they are considered integral members.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their oaths to serving the Constitution and the people of the United States are treated as sacred, binding members to an ideology that leads to action. This action includes supporting people in conflicts against federal agencies<\/a>, organizing citizen-led disaster relief efforts<\/a>, and protesting election results like on Jan. 6. The members\u2019 strength results from their shared oath and the reverence they feel toward keeping it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are the Oath Keepers?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Rhodes joined the Army after high school and served for three years before being honorably discharged after a parachuting accident in 1986<\/a>. He then attended the University of Nevada and later graduated from Yale Law School in 2004. He founded the Oath Keepers<\/a> in 2009.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oath Keepers takes its name from the U.S military Oath of Enlistment, which states<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI, , 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 \u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Several
From left, Stewart Rhodes, leader of the Oath Keepers, and Enrique Tarrio, Joe Biggs and Zach Rehl, members of the far-right group the Proud Boys, rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Feb. 21, 2025. Chip Somodevilla\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Informed by his law background, Rhodes places a particular emphasis on the part of the oath that states they will defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He developed a legal theory that justifies ignoring what he refers to as \u201cunlawful orders\u201d after witnessing the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina<\/a>. Following the natural disaster, local law enforcement was assigned the task of confiscating guns, many of which officers say were stolen or found in abandoned homes<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhodes was alarmed, believing that the Second Amendment rights of citizens were being violated. Because of this, he argued<\/a> that people who had military or law enforcement backgrounds had a legal duty to refuse what the group considers unlawful orders, including any that violated constitutionally protected rights, such as the right to bear arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Oath Keepers\u2019 philosophy, anyone who violates these rights are domestic enemies to the Constitution. And if you follow the orders, you\u2019ve violated your oath<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explaining the origin of the group on the right-wing website \u201cThe Gateway Pundit<\/a>\u201d in November 2025, Rhodes said: \u201c\u2026 we were attacked out of the gate, labeled anti-government, which is absurd because we\u2019re defending the Constitution that established the federal government. We were labeled anti-government extremists, all kinds of nonsense because the elites want blind obedience in the police and military.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rebuilding and restructuring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2022, the nonprofit whistleblower site Distributed Denial of Secrets<\/a> leaked more than 38,000 names on the Oath Keepers\u2019 membership list<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Anti-Defamation League estimated<\/a> that nearly 400 of the names were active law enforcement officers, and that over 100 were serving in the military. Some of these members were investigated<\/a> by their workplaces but never disciplined for their involvement with the group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some members who were not military or law enforcement did lose their jobs over their affiliation. But they held government-related positions, such as a Wisconsin alderman<\/a> who resigned after he was identified as a member.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This breach of privacy, paired with the dissolution of the organization after Rhodes\u2019 sentencing, will help shape the group going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In his interview with \u201cThe Gateway Pundit<\/a>,\u201d where he announced the group\u2019s relaunch, Rhodes said: \u201cI want to make it clear, like I said, my goal would be to make it more cancel-proof than before. We\u2019ll have resilient, redundant IT that makes it really difficult to take down. \u2026 And I want to make sure I get \u2013 put people in charge and leadership everywhere in the country so that, you know, down the road, if I\u2019m taken out again, that it can still live on under good leadership without me being there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was a similar shift in organizational structure with the Proud Boys in 2018. That\u2019s when their founder, Gavin McInnes, stepped away from the organization<\/a>. His departure came after a group of Proud Boys members were involved in a fight with anti-fascists in New York<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Several
Members of the Oath Keepers stand on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. AP Photo\/Manuel Balce Ceneta, File<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Prosecutors wanted to try the group as a gang<\/a>. McInnes, therefore, distanced himself to support their defense that they weren\u2019t in a gang or criminal organization. Ultimately, two of the members were sentenced to four years in prison<\/a> for attempted gang assault charges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some Proud Boys members have told me they have since focused on creating local chapters, with in-person recruitment, that communicate on private messaging apps. They aim to protect themselves from legal classification as a gang. It also makes it harder for investigators or activist journalists to monitor them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is referred to as a cell style of organization<\/a>, which is popular with insurgency groups. These groups<\/a> are organized to rebel against authority and overthrow government structures. The cell organizational style does not have a robust hierarchy but instead produces smaller groups. They all adhere to the same ideology but may not be directly associated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They may have a leader, but it\u2019s often acknowledged that they are merely a figurehead, not someone giving direct orders. For the Proud Boys, this would be former leader Enrique Tarrio<\/a>. Proud Boys members I\u2019ve spoken to have referred to him as a \u201cmascot\u201d and not their leader.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking ahead<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So what does the Rhodes interview indicate about the future of Oath Keepers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Members will continue supporting Trump while also recruiting more retired military and law enforcement officers. They will create an organizational structure designed to outlive Rhodes. And based on my interactions with the far-right, I believe it\u2019s likely they will create an organizational structure similar to that of the cell style for organizing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond that, they are going to try to own their IT, which includes hosting their websites<\/a> and also using trusted online revenue generators<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will likely provide added security, protecting their membership rolls while making it more difficult for law enforcement agencies to investigate them in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alexander Lowie<\/a>, Postdoctoral associate in Classical and Civic Education, University of Florida<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Alexander Lowie, University of Florida Stewart Rhodes, the founder of the Oath Keepers, a far-right militia, announced in November 2025 that he will relaunch the group after it disbanded following his prison sentence in 2023. Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison for seditious conspiracy and other crimes committed during the U.S. Capitol riot […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":56,"featured_media":41408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[8025,46,295,10,296,36,4,38],"tags":[16854,479,17311,4850,13242,965,885,891,886,860,11334,17312,16816,10540,2987,10537,17310,686,2013],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41407"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/56"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41407"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41721,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41407\/revisions\/41721"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}