Pitchforks?

[KingOrfeo]

Someone, like me, who has taken that oath and followed it to the letter, and in so doing left his blood on foreign soil, twice, needs no lectures from you about patriotism, or the real meaning of that oath.

Would that were so!

 

[unregistered]

 

[MonkeyFootball]

And the Constitution says the POTUS and nobody else is their CinC. But what I find disturbing is not your being open to the possibility that it can happen -- there are, after all, so many examples in other countries' histories -- but your apparent hope that it will. No patriotic American would hope for that. Not only would it be ipso facto unconstitutional regardless of the incumbent Administration's conduct, but there is no way a military coup in America can end well for America.

"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."

"I, _____ (SSAN), having been appointed an officer in the Army of the United States, as indicated above in the grade of _____ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter; So help me God."

I don’t see a word about the POTUS in that oath and I just looked at the one on my wall and can't find it there either.

Do we have the right to revolt? Well according to the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence we do........

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security

Yea I would say that pretty well covers the “ ..it unconstitutional..."statement

As for the question of whether we would turn our guns on the people we are sworn to protect, well that would be up to each soldier to decide. I know I would not, but I only speak for me.

Why would it end bad? Seems like up until the last 2 decades the last revolution worked out very well.

 

[KingOrfeo]

I don’t see a word about the POTUS in that oath . . .

But the oath refers to the Constitution. Article 2, Section 2, Clause 1:

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States . . .

Do we have the right to revolt? Well according to the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence we do.........

A revolutionary document, predating the Constitution by 13 years. The DOI has zero legal or constitutional significance. "The Constitution is not a suicide pact," it neither includes nor implies any legal right of revolt.

Why would it end bad?

Because military coups, successful or not, always do, and because violating the principle of the military's subordination to civil government would do irreparable damage to America.