In a stunning display of partisan desperation, six Democrat lawmakers with military or intelligence backgrounds—Senators Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) and Mark Kelly (D-AZ), along with Representatives Jason Crow (D-CO), Chrissy Houlahan (D-PA), Chris Deluzio (D-PA), and Maggie Goodlander (D-NH)—released a video entitled “Don’t Give Up the Ship” on November 18th. In it, they directly addressed active-duty service members and intelligence personnel, reminding them of their oath to the Constitution and their duty to refuse “unlawful orders.”
This came amid President Trump’s deployment of National Guard forces to quell violent crime in Democrat-run cities like Los Angeles, Portland, Chicago, and potentially others. President Trump rightly condemned this as “seditious behavior at the highest level,” labeling the lawmakers “traitors” whose actions endanger the chain of command and national stability.
To wit: those who cloak their political opposition in faux concern for the Constitution while actively undermining civilian control of the military are the real threat to the Republic.
To understand why this intervention is so pernicious, one must first grasp what constitutes a truly “unlawful order” under US military law. The Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) and longstanding precedent make clear that service members are obligated to disobey orders that are manifestly illegal—that is, orders that clearly violate the Constitution, federal law, or the laws of war, where no reasonable person could believe them lawful. The Department of Defense Law of War Manual and court-martial precedents emphasize that the illegality must be patent and palpable. Classic examples include orders to commit war crimes, such as murdering unarmed civilians or prisoners.
History provides sobering illustrations. The most infamous US case is the 1968 My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War, where Lieutenant William Calley ordered and participated in the slaughter of hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese villagers. Calley’s defense—“I was only following orders”—was rejected; he was convicted of premeditated murder because the order to kill non-combatants was manifestly unlawful. The courts-martial of Calley and Captain Ernest Medina reaffirmed that “superior orders” is no defense to obvious crimes.
Similarly, post-World War II Nuremberg Trials established that Nazi officers could not hide behind Hitler’s directives to exterminate Jews or execute prisoners—such orders were void ab initio. In American jurisprudence, cases like United States v. Keenan (1969) further solidified that an order to commit a serious crime against civilians carries no legitimacy. These are not gray-area policy disputes; they are blatant criminal acts.
Sedition, by contrast, strikes at the heart of governmental authority without necessarily involving overt violence. Under 18 USC § 2384, seditious conspiracy occurs when two or more persons conspire to oppose by force the authority of the United States, to prevent or delay the execution of any law, or to seize federal property. Historical examples include the 1861 convictions of Confederate sympathizers who plotted to disrupt Union operations, the Puerto Rican nationalist attack on Blair House in 1950, and more contemporary instances where state and local officials in “sanctuary” jurisdictions have systematically refused to honor ICE detainers or cooperate with federal immigration enforcement, deliberately obstructing the execution of duly enacted immigration laws and releasing dangerous criminal aliens back into communities—actions that federal authorities have repeatedly condemned as endangering public safety and defying the Supremacy Clause.
Treason is the gravest offense, narrowly defined in Article III, Section 3 of the Constitution: “Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.” The Framers deliberately made it difficult to prove, requiring two witnesses to the same overt act or a confession in open court.
There have been fewer than 40 treason prosecutions in US history and even fewer convictions. Aaron Burr was acquitted in 1807 despite allegations of plotting to detach western territories. During World War II, the Rosenberg spy ring was convicted of espionage (not treason) for passing atomic secrets to the Soviet Union, while Tokyo Rose (Iva Toguri) was controversially convicted of treason for wartime broadcasts but later pardoned. The narrow definition exists precisely to prevent its weaponization in partisan fights.
Herein lies the outrage: partisan political and ideological differences cannot form the basis for claiming an order is unlawful. Deploying federal forces to restore order in crime-ravaged cities—authorized under the Insurrection Act and other statutes—is a quintessential executive prerogative, not a war crime. Encouraging uniformed personnel to second-guess the Commander-in-Chief based on Democrat talking points about “threats to the Constitution originating domestically” is not principled oath-keeping; it is a veiled call for insubordination.
When elected officials with security clearances use their former service as a bully pulpit to tell troops and spooks they may ignore presidential directives they dislike, they come perilously close to both sedition (opposing lawful authority by force or coercion) and treason (undermining the government they swore to defend). This is not “reminding” anyone of their duty—it is politicizing the military and intelligence communities, risking the very chain of command that has kept America strong for 250 years.
The hypocrisy of the activist Left is breathtaking. These same voices who spent years shrieking about “stochastic terrorism” and demanding that conservatives “tone down the caustic political rhetoric” after every tragedy now openly incite refusal of lawful presidential orders. They cheered when generals penned op-eds against Trump in 2020, celebrated “resistance” inside the bureaucracy, and remained silent when Antifa and BLM rioters burned cities while Democrats called them “mostly peaceful.”
Yet the moment a Republican president uses constitutional tools to enforce the law, they cry fascism and urge mutiny. They demand their opponents stay silent and “accept the results” only when it suits them, but never adhere to their own preached civility. If any faction is flirting with a second US Civil War through relentless institutional subversion, erosion of norms, and now direct appeals to the military and clandestine services to defy civilian leadership, it is the ideological activist Left. Their actions are not patriotic dissent—they are the behavior of sore losers, color revolutionaries, and anarchists willing to fracture the Republic rather than accept electoral defeat.
America’s military swears an oath to the Constitution, not to any party or politician. When lawmakers abuse that oath to wage partisan warfare, they betray everything they claim to protect.
President Trump is right: such conduct demands accountability, lest we descend into the banana-republic chaos the Left falsely accuses others of wanting but which, I suspect, they secretly desire.
When we come back, our segment on America’s Third Watch, broadcast nationally from our flagship station WGUL, AM860 and FM93.7 in Tampa, Florida.
In Closing…
In the end, urging America’s warriors and intelligence personnel to defy their Commander-in-Chief’s orders over mere policy disagreements isn’t noble oath-keeping—it’s textbook sedition dressed in patriotic drag.
When Democrat lawmakers weaponize the uniform they once wore to sow mutiny, they don’t defend the Constitution; they assault it. Their selective outrage—silent on sanctuary cities sabotaging immigration law, deafening when a Republican president restores order—reeks of hypocrisy so thick it could choke Lady Liberty herself.
If anyone is stoking division toward a second Civil War, it’s the activist Left that preaches “tone it down” while lighting rhetorical fuses. True patriots obey lawful orders and settle scores at the ballot box, not by fracturing the chain of command and attempting to fracture the Republic.
Until next time…
