Our Republican Legacy (ORL) Opposes the use of the U.S. Military as the President's National Police Force

The issue. The delegates to the Constitutional Convention of 1787 believed so strongly that oaths are fundamental and indispensable, they explicitly included in the Constitution a requirement that the president-elect take “the following  “Oath or Affirmation” before assuming the office of President: “I do solemnly swear or affirm that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.”

 In addition, each person enlisting in the Armed Forces must take the following enlistment 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; 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."

And finally, all U.S. military officers must take and fulfill an oath to support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic and “to bear true faith and allegiance to the Constitution.”  But, unlike the oath for enlisted members, the officers’ oath does not include a pledge to obey the president or other superiors. The difference between the two oaths ensures that officers promise to adhere to the Constitution and not the political whims of an elected official who may have little regard for the Constitution or the Rule of Law.

Taking and adhering to an oath of office is infinitely more than a ceremonial ritual. It is the making of a public promise and an affirmation of a sacred vow to be bound, above all else, to the faithful execution of the duties assigned by law and the Constitution.

Throughout our history, the U.S. military has fulfilled its assigned role and responsibilities with dedication and distinction. Our Armed Forces are widely recognized as the preeminent military force in the world. U.S. military personnel are highly skilled and courageous guardians of our safety and security, our liberty, and our constitutional union. For an commander-in-chief to illegally utilize them as pawns in the resolution of political disputes is a grotesque betrayal of a president’s sacred oath of office. 

While domestic crime in the United States must always be confronted firmly by law enforcement, there is not, at this moment, any credible evidence of aninsurrection anywhere in America. We are not engaged in a “war from within”as Donald Trump frequently and fraudulently proclaims. Such declarations are simply another distraction and prevarication at a cost to the taxpayers of hundreds of millions of dollars for political gain.

The President has flippantly called for those governors and mayors who oppose his attempts to activate and send National Guard units and Federal troops to their states and cities to be “jailed.” His reckless rhetoric, grounded upon falsehoods, not only betrays his presidential oath of office, it also starkly reveals his uncontrollable desireto consolidate and brandish more power than that afforded to his office by the Constitution.

President Trump’s order to train the sights of the country’s armed forces upon imaginary “insurrectionists” in American cities he labels “war zones,” is not only outside the boundaries and competencies of our soldiers’ military training, it’s also fraught with risks to innocent people and convincingly appears to be an effort to generate conflict rather than to eliminate it thereby providing  ostensible justification for his  troop movements in cities and states with Democrat officeholders. Simply put, those orders are foolish, irrational, menacing, and intentionally provocative.

Making matters infinitely worse, the President not only seeks to provoke the people he represents, he admittedly does it to seek revenge and retribution against political opponents he refers to as “enemies.” As Lincoln taught us, in America our political opponents are not our enemies. 

By repeatedly labelling his political opponents “enemies and insurrectionists” Donald Trump intends to condition the consciousness of America in an effort to create a false predicate, laying the backdrop in the media and in the public square to justify the activation and presence of National Guard and Federal troops on the streets of American cities and states.

The President’s National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 of September 25th implicitly discloses his future intention to defeat the political opponents he labels “domestic terrorists” because they favor policies other than his own. The President’s attempt to impose his political will beyond the bounds and constraints of his constitutional and legal authority must be terminated  if the Constitution, the Rule of Law and the union are to be preserved.

ORL position. Based on our principle defending the Constitution and the Rule of Law, Our Republican Legacy opposes the use of the U.S. Armed Forces and National Guard troops as the President’s national police force. Specifically, we oppose President Trump’s flagrant use of military personnel sent to states governed by Democratic leaders with whom he has a personal grudge or policy disagreement.

We contest the President’s claim that he is responding to “insurrections” in the United States where none exist by any definition of the term. We oppose his threats to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act to justify his illegal orders dispatching U.S. and National Guard troops into American cities and states without the consent of  the governors of those states. 

Action required. ORL believes that three major actions are required to ensure that the U.S. military does not become a political tool of the President to be used as his national police force to advance his vindictive political agenda.

First, the President must cease and desist from his violent rhetoric against his political opponents and his use of the U.S. military to act a civilian police force.

Second, Congress must find the courage to start acting like a co-equal branch of government under our Constitution and constrain the ever-increasing expansion of Presidential authority and power beyond the limits provided in the Constitution.

Third, “We the People” must engage peacefully in our communities to defend and protect our right to free speech, our right to redress our grievances, and our right to assemble in a country founded upon liberty and justice for all without fear of revenge and retribution by a government constituted of, by, and for “we the people.”