Cheater, Cheater, Ballot-Eater….

Dictators Are Scary

It’s curious to me how we can call ourselves ‘the greatest nation in the world’ when our elections are rigged and manipulated. Don’t get me started on the ‘hanging chad’ debacle of the election where Bush took a second term in office. One would think that, after the advent of ballots floating in the water off the Florida coast, SOMEBODY would have done SOMETHING to prevent the Republicans from just plain cheating thier way into the presidency. Yet, this morning, I read that a private equity company run by Republican supporters bought the third-largest voting machine company ( H.I.G.), in the country last July. But wait! There’s more!

H.I.G. ‘s co-founder and eight of the company’s managing directors came from Bain & Co., where Mitt Romney made his fortune. H.I.G.’s co-founder has donated $75,000 to the Romney Victory Fund, and H.I.G.’s directors have given enough money to the Romney Campaign that their company is the sixth biggest contributor to all Romney committees.

H.I.G. supplies voting machines for 370 jurisdictions around the nation, with about 17.7 million registered voters, the most important of which is Cincinnati, the third-largest city in the infamous swing state of Ohio. But wait! It gets even worse!

These voting machines are programmed and administrated by H.I.G. (that’s right…they are counting the votes), and, conveniently enough, leave no paper trail. In other words, when they count votes, we just have to take their word for it, because there is no way to know whether or not the counts are honest and accurate.

While most of you probably aren’t aware of this, in August 2003 , the chief executive of the voting machine giant Diebold, Inc., sent an email to donors of George W. Bush’s reelection campaign, saying he was “committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year.” ~and he did just what he promised.

So, the next time you point fingers at another country for being full of corrupt and dangerous politicians, look at the United States, and then remember this lesson: Adolf Hitler achieved his dictatorial powers due to the Enabling Act of 1933, which was passed by arresting members of the opposition and threatening others with death. The German constitution stated that changes to the consitution required a vote where 66% of Parliament was present. Now, the President of Parliament was Hermann Goering, a close confidant of Hitler; so he enacted a new rule that if a member of Parliament did not have a ‘good reason’ for being absent, he would be counted as present. He then proceeded to arrest and threaten members of the Democratic Party. Those who were not arrested, fearing for their lives, did not attend for the vote and the act was passed.

The Enabling Act of 1933 granted Hitler’s ‘cabinet’ the authority to enact laws without the participation of Parliament (Reichstag). After the act was passed, Hitler became dictator.

But you say, “Oh, don’t be silly. Mitt Romney isn’t Hitler…”. Perhaps. But if you consider that his religious beliefs as a Mormon dictate that he is to become President and set aside the U.S. Constitution to enact a Mormon theocracy, you may be surpised by the conclusions you reach.

~KTE