With Rhodes at the helm, the group continued to promote their own version of vigilante justice by providing voluntary and sometimes illegal security during tense situations in America, after a terrorist attack and during the protests in Ferguson, Missouri, and by taking part in multiple standoffs against the government. Rhodes had his group patrol the polls in an activity they called Operation Sabot during the 2016 presidential election.
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These supposed threats are, in fact, part of the central conspiracy theory advocated by the antigovernment movement of which the Oath Keepers is a part – the baseless claim that the federal government plans to impose martial law, seize Americans’ weapons, force those who resist into concentration camps and, ultimately, push the country into a one-world socialistic government known as the “New World Order.” In 2013, the group announced the planned formation of “Citizen Preservation” militias meant to defend Americans against the New World Order. The core idea of Elmer Stewart Rhodes’ group, the Oath Keepers, is that its members vow to support the oaths they took on joining law enforcement or the military to defend the Constitution forever and the group’s own list of 10 “Orders We Will Not Obey.” The list is a compendium of perceived, unrealized threats from the government – orders, for instance, to force Americans into concentration camps, confiscate their guns or cooperate with foreign troops in the United States.