The US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is more than just a liberal court. It is an active enemy cell, a disloyal institution which has taken the side of America’s enemies in the War on Terror. Its recent ruling that the detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba must be given access to lawyers and American courts is nothing short of treason, if you accept the Constitutional definition of treason as giving “aid and comfort” to enemies of the United States. They are part of a growing Corps of enemies in the homeland who are, in many ways, more dangerous to the survival of the Republic. Our enemy is not just over there, they are also right here, at home.

Now, let me make the dimensions and motives of this enemy clear. I do not believe that the liberal Judges on the 9th Circuit are covert members of al-Qaeda any more than I ever believed that Jimmy Carter was a covert winner of the Order of Lenin. The enemy within operates in the fashion that they do because they are post-American and, therefore, they lack all belief in the meaning of national identity. Lacking, as they do, a fundamental sense of Americanism, this portion of the left places a far higher value on ideology than they do on country. For them ‘America’ as a concept is, at best, meaningless or, at worst, a dangerous vestige of the reactionary old regime.

They fancy themselves (and, in actuality, are) ‘citizens of the world’. This is a term which deserves some examination. Think back to the time of the Civil War. Many officers, including Robert E. Lee, believed in the Union, but sided with the Confederacy because their ‘country’ (or, in other words, their home state) did so. Today we view such sentiments as quaint. That, I think, is how the ‘citizens of the world’ view people who would put America first. The United States, to them, is viewed only in the context of the larger world.

This viewpoint, in essence, means that these people constitute a large and disloyal group. Their loyalty to the United States is entirely contingent upon politics. When Bill Clinton was President they were loyal because they believed that would advance the cause of the left. Now that George W. Bush is President, they behave disloyally because they believe that will advance the cause of the left today. It is a spirit utterly devoid of patriotism, which much of the left today considers to be a reactionary and outdated sentiment.

The advent of the internet has accelerated the spread of this contagion. American, European, Australian, and Canadian leftists (along with a few assorted others) get a place where they can stand side by side and develop a sense of solidarity which helps to further erode national feeling. Into the gap caused by that loss rush a sort of international leftist ideology. Someday talk to a Howard Dean campaign worked, a Canadian New Democrat, a British peace activist, and a German politician. The thing which will quickly strike you is this: they all believe pretty much the same things about politics, about America, and about the world. The creed of much of the American left is an Internationalism that transcends Americanism. If given the chance they’d gladly sign away the flag for gay marriage and universal health care. It isn’t even that (in most American cases, at least) they really hate America as much as they don’t care about it).

Howard Dean’s campaign howls about how they’re going to take back the country: but do they actually believe in the country? Is the nation an ends onto itself, or merely a means onto an ends? I believe that, for them at least, it is the latter. In fact, as time has passed, I’ve increasingly noticed that the Dean campaign is a lot like syphilis. People join the campaign as normal, if slightly misguided, Americans and come out of it as deranged, ultra-partisan, Dean-bots whose passion for America is matched only by the oratorical abilities of Steve Forbes. Like syphilis, supporting Howard Dean will eventually rot your brain.

The question now left to us is of how to deal with these people. As tempting as it might sound, we cannot throw all of them in jail. But, at the same time, we must do something against them. This is wartime, and we cannot allow a large element determined to aid our enemies to operate freely.