A TYRANT BY ANY OTHER NAME

 

The tyrants of the world always seek to cloak themselves in a fairy tale of respectability. When a third world dictator stages a mock election suppressing the process of a democratic election we in America question the outcome but rarely intervene. We scoff at the huge plurality of votes they claim to have won by or the validation that the “election” gives their absolute authority. We as Americans are secure in our belief that our electoral process could never be subverted enough to actually elect a candidate that fails to win the majority of the votes. It is common in third world politics to hear of voter and candidate intimidation. We know that phantom vote tallies and candidate intimidation are simply not possible here. What if our confidence is misplaced?

There are a significant number of voters from Broward Co. Florida who vehemently claim that the Presidential election of 2000 was stolen in their county. History shows that a few years earlier the election of President John Kennedy hinged on the smallest of margins, tipped in the Democrats favor by a fortunate voter turnout in the Chicago area where some precincts exceeded 100%. There were allegations of fraud but Nixon chose not to contest the election.

In 2008 with no incumbent running and popular opinion running in favor of Hillary Clinton a relatively unknown candidate with no experience and no legislative record of accomplishment ran on a platform without substance. Here was a candidate proclaiming hope and change and little else. Senator Obama rode a strange combination of reverse discrimination and anti-Bush rhetoric to the Oval office. None of the bare knuckle politics that had dominated his state senate victory in Illinois where all four of his challengers got disqualified before the election seemed to show up. In the Senators successful bid to serve in the U.S. Senate the strange and illegal public disclosure of Obama’s Republican opponent Jack Ryan’s sealed divorce proceedings forced him to withdraw just before the election. Mr. Obama seemed to be enjoying a lot of fortunate coincidences. In 2012 however the political winds appeared to be against his reelection as high unemployment and the wars dragged on. Gitmo was still open and his signature healthcare law was not popular. A grass roots wave of conservative momentum loosely called the TEA PARTY had flipped the House of Representatives over to Republican control in the midterm elections and appeared to constitute a formidable opposition force on the ground. Enter third world electioneering as the IRS systematically thwarted the TEA PARTY’S attempts to organize. The election was long over before IRS personnel in charge of the malfeasance started taking their “fifth amendment” rights before a House oversight committee. A new and even more formidable challenge surfaced. A black conservative with experience and a well articulated plan, a candidate with a successful business background and no political baggage. Herman Cain was the perfect storm forming up to derail the reelection hopes of the President. The left leaning news media were having a field day discrediting the usual crop of moderate Republican retreaded candidates. They had to work a little harder to ridicule the conservative woman in the race while not appearing to wage a war on women. The black conservative however was real trouble, he could not be openly challenged any more than the President could without opening oneself up to charges of racism. Chicago politics swung into action and a former employee who just happened to live in the same building as the Presidents campaign manager admitted receiving money from Herman Cain. Rumors surfaced of corporate payoffs to suppress publicity over Mr. Cain’s sexual harassment and the media inferred that the money paid to Ginger White was evidence of her allegation of a decade long affair. In the center of a media storm Mr. Cain withdrew from the race. After the damage was done Miss White admitted that there was never a sexual relationship between her and Mr. Cain and that his checks had been sent to help her when she was in need of money. She said that her use of the term “affair” was just an unfortunate misunderstanding.

Real tyrants govern by fiat, granting to themselves total authority while condemning any and all opposition as the product of hate and anarchy. Some invasions of privacy are explained away as necessary for the government to provide “the people” with security. Some freedom of speech and private property rights as well as certain types of gatherings will need to be prohibited to avoid anarchy. Real tyrants can be identified in any group as they pass laws while exempting themselves from application. Tyrants need to disarm the public lest the worst of their actions incubate an armed insurrection like the one that created this country. Real tyrants create laws permitting them to unilaterally seize control of civil authorities, industrial production, transportation and guns in the event of a national emergency. Tyrannies can only happen when a population of free men, are not vigilant.