One Cheer for Ralph Nader

March 24, 2011 6:52 PM

Anyone who has come out publicly and aggressively in favor of the impeachment of Barack Hussein Obama can't be all bad; hence the title of today's blogpost, "One Cheer for Ralph Nader." You are invited to fire up YouTube on your favorite device to watch Nader blasting the Commander-in-Chief for exceeding the Constitutional limits on executive power by using the US military to assault Libya in an undeclared war. Nader describes a leftist veteran group's criticism of Obama's action as "a powerful statement for the rule of law."

Wow. Flouting the Constitution and the "rule of law." Fancy that coming from the legendary leftist Nader, who, in this one rare instance, is almost sounding like me. There is no doubt about it that many other leftists are enraged by Obama's intervention in Libya. Nader calls Obama a "war criminal," and makes the point that what is sauce for the geese (Bush and Cheney) is sauce for the gander (Obama.) The sauce, of course, is impeachment.

In my last blogpost I wrote that Obama has broken (on the Libya issue) with the left-wing establishment in order to be a humanitarian crisis hero, primarily to bolster his own sagging self-respect. Naturally, what I wrote was pure speculation; who knows what is really in Obama's mind? Regardless, this opens up some questions about the Left, whom I prefer to call Bolsheviks. The top question is, "who is in charge of the leftist (Marxist-Leninist) agenda?"

Back during the Soviet days, the Communist Party was led by a Central Committee, whose boss was General Secretary, and that was reportedly Stalin's official title. During Stalin's regime, policy was enforced from the top down by a strict command-and-control apparatus, and filtered down to overseas (non-Soviet) communists, including the Communist Party of the USA, whose members were subjected to the same control. Frank S. Meyer, a former National Review writer, describes, in his book, "The Moulding of Communists," how some American communists were sent to Russia, where they were executed. (The Meyer book, by the way, should be required reading for anyone who genuinely wants to restore the Constitution to its proper role in American law.)

Today, the self-described Left has no Central Committee or Secretary-General. Like Protestant churches, it has no Pope. Does Obama run it? Does George Soros, all by himself and his billions? Nancy Pelosi? The Congressional Progressive Caucus? Fidel Castro? Kim Jong-Il? Hu Jintao? Michael Moore? The nameless policy wonk who was in charge of drafting the atrocious Obamacare bill? I can happily answer all of these questions, "Hell, no!" They are all part of the Left, but none of them control it the way Stalin controlled the Communists. I call what remains of the Communist movement, which has hijacked our mainstream media, our public schools, and our higher education, the "Headless Serpent."

As with any rigid top-down hierarchy, including the Roman Empire, Sunni Islam, the Roman Catholic Church, or the Republican Party, sooner or later there is going to be dissent in the top leadership resulting in a split or breakup. That, just to take one example, is why Saudi Arabian Sunnis and Iran-influenced Shia in the island state of Bahrain are killing each other as I write this.

In my opinion, the tendency of rigid tyrannical structures to break down into factions is a good thing. For the rule of Constitutional law, which is neither rigid nor tyrannical, it is not. Our Founding Fathers addressed the hazard extensively out of concern for a peaceful way to resolve disputes and splits in the about-to-be-born American constitutional republic.

James Madison, in Federalist #10, warned of factions leading to the dissent and ultimate destruction of the constitutional republic:

The instability, injustice, and confusion introduced into the public councils, have, in truth, been the mortal diseases under which popular governments have everywhere perished.

Our current constitutional republic is severely stressed with many factions: progressives vs. classical liberals, "liberals" vs. the Constitution, wealth redistributionists vs. individual rights advocates, RINOs vs GOP conservatives, religious zealots vs Libertarians, "whim-worshiping" Libertarians vs. "objectivists", etc. However, our founding fathers gave us powerful tools to prevent destructive factionalism, including bicameral legislature, three competing government branches, recall votes, and, yes, the requirement that our President be a natural-born American citizen.

Considering Obama's Libya heroics nose-thumbing at the Bolshevik orthodoxy, and Nader's call for Obama's impeachment, it's nice to have the shoe on the other foot. I'm not sure if I agree with Nader that Obama is a war criminal, but a criminal he is. He has committed, in my opinion, high crimes and misdemeanors against the Constitution, the currency, and capitalism.

Impeach the son of a bitch.