A Nation of Czars Makes Us

Lately in the news media there has been a lot of talk of new American "czars." For example, a tech czar, a car czar, an energy czar etc.

Czar, as you may recall, is Russian for the Roman "Caesar," a dictator. It's equivalent in German, Kaiser, is no doubt familiar to those with a rudimentary knowledge of European history.

A true Czar has no peers; like their Roman forerunners, they alone sit atop government as the head of state and dispenser of ultimate justice.

I very much doubt we are creating a Czarist America, though with all those mini-czars running her industries, our federal bureaucracy is rapidly beginning to resemble another Russian institution: the politburo.