Voter apathy brought Adolf Hitler to power

Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star ^ | 05/22/2012 | Rex A. Hoover

[jeffc]

Gift? The vote is not a "gift", it's a responsibility. It's also a responsibility that the electorate be informed for a Democratic Republic (or even just a Democracy) to succeed.

The liberal media (which means all of them...) and Big Education have made sure that the people are not informed, so as to be led to the voting booth and told who to vote for.

[PzLdr]

Paul von Hindenburg and Fritz von Papen brought Hitler to power. He was APPOINTED Reichs Chancellor.

[TexConfederate1861]

But his appointment was ratified by a plebiscite, where he was elected by a comfortable majority. He was fond of bragging that he came to power by “democratic means”

[pepsionice]

There are several things about this article, which doesn’t ring totally true.

1932 Germany population was around 62 million at best. If you talked up the voting public for the country....there were 42 million registered voters, but only 35 million showed up (80 percent turn-out).

The Nazi Party barely took eighteen percent of the vote, but there were ten parties with a minimum of three percent of the national vote.

Voter apathy was an issue, but you have to remember the arrival of radio on the scene in Germany. Hitler took full advantage of this, and ended up giving dozens of 4-star speeches in the four years up to the election in 1930.

[SparkyBass]

"And I continue to count on just that..."

[OldPossum]

One responsibility of good citizenship is to wisely evaluate candidates for elected office and determine which candidates have the best abilities and intentions to serve. That 100 million Americans don’t vote and that 69 million others’ votes are motivated by vacuous “hope and change” slogans or propaganda against candidates suggests they are not up to the tasks of competent voting or responsible citizenship. How can America sustain herself with such citizenry?

I think you and I both know the answer to that question. America cannot stay the mighty and just nation it has been with its current ignorant electorate.

[x]

Voter apathy or voter enthusiasm? Maybe it was voter dissatisfaction and disillusionment with traditional parties — something that might take the form either of non-voting or of enthusiasm for movements like Hitler’s.