The Oath Keepers: Patriotism, Dissent, and the Edge of Violence
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Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE June 2018 The Oath Keepers: Patriotism, Dissent, and the Edge of Violence Sam Jackson Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Jackson, Sam, "The Oath Keepers: Patriotism, Dissent, and the Edge of Violence" (2018). Dissertations - ALL. 896. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/896 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract This dissertation investigates a prominent group in the patriot/militia movement called the Oath Keepers. It explores how the group uses references to core political ideas and important political events from American history. It argues that these rhetorical strategies serve three purposes: (1) helping the group’s supporters to make sense of contemporary America, (2) providing the group’s supporters with models of appropriate behavior in response to ongoing events, and (3) help the group to gain additional support. It also argues that different rhetorical strategies are useful for different purposes and target different audiences. The Oath Keepers: Patriotism, Dissent, and the Edge of Violence by Sam Jackson B.A., University of Tennessee Knoxville, 2009 M.A., University of Manchester, 2012 MA, Syracuse University, 2016 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Social Science. Syracuse University June 2018 Copyright © Sam Jackson 2018 All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements The list of people who have inspired this project or helped it to take shape is long indeed. I am incredibly grateful to the members of my committee – Michael Barkun, David Bennett, Mark Rupert, Jennifer Stromer-Galley, and Edwin Ackerman – for support, advice, and encouragement throughout my years at Syracuse University. Thanks especially to Michael, David, and Mark, who encouraged me to take up this project when I was deliberating between several possibilities for my dissertation topic. Early on, I realized that I wanted to do computational things that I did not have the skillset to do. Sincere thanks to the numerous people who helped me find tools, suggested new skillsets that would be helpful, reviewed code, and helped me develop new tools and ways of thinking about data: J.M. Berger, Mahboobeh Harandi, Yatish Hegde, Jeff Hemsley, Nancy McCracken, Todd Metcalfe, Justin Seitz, and Shan Zhang. A number of people provided invaluable conversations and feedback on drafts and related projects – in seminars, over email, and at conferences. Thanks to J.M. Berger, Olga Boichak, Jeff Broxmeyer, John Burdick, Joel Busher, Robert Churchill, Elizabeth Cohen, Lindsay Cohn, Francesca Grandi, Matt Lacombe, J.J. MacNab, Alex Meleagrou-Hitchens, Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Mark Pitcavage, Victoria Reyes, Fabian Virchow, and Liz Yates. A number of other scholars served as inspiration for this project from a distance. Ruth Braunstein, Mark Juergensmeyer, and Rogers Smith led me to new ways of thinking about the relationship between political identity and various forms of political behavior. James Aho pointed my attention at understudied forms of American political extremism. Saul Cornell, Jill Lepore, David Sehat, and Garry Wills helped me think about the enduring legacy of the nation’s founding iv – in particular, the ways that remembering the Revolution shapes contemporary political thought and behavior. All of these folks helped shape this project. I hope they all find something to appreciate in this. Any success of this work, I share with them; all errors are mine alone. v Table of Contents Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................................... iv A Note on Grammar ......................................................................................................................................... 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................................... 2 The Oath Keepers’s Place in American Politics .......................................................................................................... 5 “Right-wing” ......................................................................................................................................................... 5 Right-wing extremism........................................................................................................................................... 7 Dissertation Outline ................................................................................................................................................. 13 The Oath Keepers: Background ....................................................................................................................... 16 Key Figures............................................................................................................................................................... 25 Key Events ................................................................................................................................................................ 37 Perceptions of Threat .............................................................................................................................................. 54 Literature Review........................................................................................................................................... 57 Far-Right Extremism ................................................................................................................................................ 57 Nationalism and National Identity .......................................................................................................................... 65 Political Activism and Social Movements ................................................................................................................ 68 The Tea Party ........................................................................................................................................................... 70 Data and Methods ......................................................................................................................................... 75 Data ......................................................................................................................................................................... 76 Data Sources ....................................................................................................................................................... 78 Data Collection ................................................................................................................................................... 80 Tools ................................................................................................................................................................... 81 Data Processing and Analysis .................................................................................................................................. 82 Website text extraction ...................................................................................................................................... 82 Video transcription ............................................................................................................................................. 83 Automated text analysis ..................................................................................................................................... 83 Framing analysis ................................................................................................................................................. 86 vi The Ongoing Struggle over Natural Rights ....................................................................................................... 87 Concepts .................................................................................................................................................................. 88 Natural Rights.......................................................................................................................................................... 89 Which Rights Are Natural? ................................................................................................................................. 90 Natural Rights Must Be Defended ...................................................................................................................... 94 The Importance of Natural Rights as a Strategic Frame ......................................................................................... 96 The American Revolution Redux ..................................................................................................................... 98 The American Revolution Redux .............................................................................................................................. 99 The Utility of the Revolutionary War ..................................................................................................................... 111 “No More Free Wacos” ...............................................................................................................................