It was only a matter of time until Jon Ritzheimer — the ex-Marine, anti-Islamist Arizonan holed up in a federal building in Oregon — inspired his own hashtag.
Yesterday the world watched #VanillaISIS, #YallQaeda, and #YeeHawd take off on Twitter, and today we have a new one: #DaddySworeAnOath.
This hashtag, created by singer-songwriter John Darnielle of the Indie-folk and often-humorous band, The Mountain Goats, specifically mocks a recent video posted by Ritzheimer.
As New Times wrote about yesterday, Ritzheimer shed a few tears in a "goodbye" video he filmed for his wife and kids, and then promptly shared it with the world.
As he sat in his truck, Ritzheimer held up a pocket-sized copy of the U.S. Constitution and explained to his two daughters that he's in Oregon — and not with them on Christmas and New Year's Eve — because he took an oath to defend the Founding Father's document:
“You see, [I] swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution, which is blatantly under attack. But the only way to defend it is to actually take a stand and defend it."
Ritzheimer is one of about a dozen other armed protesters that took over an unoccupied building on a federal wildlife preserve in Burns, Oregon to protest the "tyranny and oppression" of the U.S. federal government. The protest came after a federal judge ordered two Oregon ranchers to serve their full prison sentence for arson.
In a tweet today, Darnielle called on "Patriotic Twitter" to fight back "and do the necessary," and posted the first video of his own ridiculous oath.
I call on all of patriotic Twitter to get behind the wheel of the #daddysworeanoath car and do the necessary
— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) January 5, 2016
#daddysworeanoath pic.twitter.com/CpZEmzNzu1
— The Mountain Goats (@mountain_goats) January 5, 2016
The following are examples of the oh-so-Patriotic response:
Step.aside, John Ritzheimer. #Oregonstandoff #DaddySworeAnOath pic.twitter.com/YPl8P8cNXk
— Tim Kirk (@Tim2Kirk) January 5, 2016
.@mountain_goats #daddysworeanoath pic.twitter.com/eJqVST6w4O
— An Gremlin (@huntokar) January 5, 2016
Road trip to Oregon! #DaddySworeAnOath @mountaingoats pic.twitter.com/AW5yuPxEFY
— Eric Bangeman (@ericbangeman) January 5, 2016
#DaddySworeAnOath to not text while driving. #OregonUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/q64DBagF9l
— David I. Jenkins (@scriptdave) January 5, 2016
#daddysworeanoath #EllaEllaElla pic.twitter.com/C5efByCvg8
— Daniel Moix (@moixland) January 5, 2016
#daddysworeanoath pic.twitter.com/BUcryqQ3LX
— Grant Stoye (@TheRealGStoye) January 5, 2016
#DaddySworeAnOath #Imodium #MultiSymptom @mountain_goats @ImodiumTweets pic.twitter.com/y2f5bTweht
— Master Baker (@IFinallyCaved) January 5, 2016
@mountain_goats @EvCoRadio @Babchik @mojo_fal_83od @spurs #DaddySworeAnOath #FALNation #GoSpursGo pic.twitter.com/UjLUMiZug5
— Joel Najera (@joelnajera) January 5, 2016
#daddysworeanoath pic.twitter.com/TOsXRV8b2T
— Daniel Scholer (@DanielScholer) January 5, 2016
Watch the full video by Ritzheimer: