Ringside Politics With A Punch

In imperial Russia, czars ruled the country and had complete power. They were imperial monarchs who were eventually overthrown by the Bolsheviks in the communist revolution. In Russia, the communists succeeded the czars and ruled with an iron first for 74 years. The brutal communist system, which featured gulags and mass murder eventually collapsed under the weight of its own corruption and failed economic policies.

Communism failed not only in Russia, but in every country where it has been tried. After the Berlin Wall collapsed in 1989, millions of Eastern Europeans tasted freedom for the first time. Sadly, communism remained in countries such as North Korea, China and Cuba and today it is seeing resurgence. Dictators such as Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua have communist tendencies and want to emulate Fidel Castro of Cuba.

What is amazing is that the United States of America is also following suit. The Obama administration has been aggressively accumulating as much government power as possible and taking over companies in the private sector. From the financial industry to the automotive industry, major entities are now owned by the federal government. This government intrusion into the free market system is disturbing to say the least, but making it even more disturbing is that the President is appointing radicals to his administration. Of course, Attorney General Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and a host of other cabinet secretaries are renowned leftists, but they are positively conservative compared to “Green Jobs” czar Van Jones.

Jones is a self proclaimed communist, who worked as a black radical and has a long history as a left coast community organizer and anarchist. In 1992, Jones rioted after the Rodney King verdict and was arrested. Instead of changing his ways and becoming a law abiding citizen, Jones was “radicalized in jail.” Upon his release, Jones started a utopian organization that advocated communism and central planning. Eventually, he became a proponent for extreme environmentalism and “green jobs.”

President Obama is the first president in recent history to appoint a communist to a key government position. It is amazing that Obama would not only choose an admitted communist for this czar position, but someone with a criminal record. This is another in a long line of disturbing decisions made by Barack Obama.

The President is obviously intent on amassing as much power as possible in the executive branch of government which is why so many czars are being appointed. According to U.S. Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA), the czars are part of a separate government structure that “is outside of the Constitution and the authority of Congress.” 

The czars purportedly have a special influence over a particular topic and can work across government departments to deal with a certain problem. Unlike cabinet secretaries, czars are not confirmed by Congress and report directly to the President, who sets their salary and creates their job role description. Therefore, the American people are clueless about the type of people that the President is appointing to the most important positions in government. There is no pubic examination of their record, so radicals and communists like Van Jones can slip into these offices with not one whiff of public opposition.

Of course, the media is completely negligent on this issue and is not doing their job of informing the public about the background of key people in this administration. Since the broadcast networks are basically cheerleaders for President Obama and were careful to minimize his radical association with terrorist William Ayers, it is not surprising that the major news outlets in this country are not alarmed about a communist wielding significant power in the Obama administration.

According to the best estimates, President Obama has appointed Jones and almost three dozen other czars to his administration, dealing with issues that range from drugs to the automotive industry. Do we really need a “domestic violence” czar or an “urban affairs” czar? Of course not and the creation of these positions expose a major problem with our government bureaucracy. According to publisher and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes, “It underscores the inefficiency of government that you keep ... having people, hoping that maybe they will get something done that the massive government bureaucracy cannot.”

Our first czar was created to be the nation’s quarterback in the war on drugs. Unfortunately, that effort was a major failure, as will the efforts of the 36 czars appointed by President Obama.

In imperial Russia, the czars also failed in their mission to hold power. They might have been unsuccessful, but they definitely were not communist. In this country, we are intent on creating government czars including one who is an unabashed communist.