Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) receives almost all of his campaign contributions from donors outside his native Connecticut. Michigan’s laughable excuse for a governor, Jennifer Granhom, received the maximum allowable contributions for her last reelection campaign from notables such has Madonna, who originally hailed from Bay City, Michigan, but now resides in England. Granholm, a Democrat, also received the maximum contribution from Ed Begley, Jr., a California resident who likely has never set foot in Michigan. Charlie Rangel, (D-NY) regularly accepts money from Hollywood types, even though he represents a congressional district in New York City that’s largely black and poor. Races for governor and secretary of state in all 50 states are flooded with money from the East and Left coasts. Congressional seats are funded with union dues from a national pool of money.  The vote of every congressman and senator is a hotly contested commodity to a well-financed and nationally integrated leftist movement. There are no ‘local’ races any more and they haven’t existed since the 1960s when the Left made its bid for national power.

A key strategy for Democrats and their leftist leaders has been to nab the secretary of state position in each of the 50 states. This is an extremely important position because secretaries of state certify elections, decide whether nor not recounts are undertaken, and whether or not investigations into voter fraud or election irregularities are necessary. As evidenced in gubernatorial elections manipulated or stolen by Democrats in Oregon and Washington recently, the secretary of state plays a key role in determining the outcome of an election. The Democratic Party and its union allies have spent untold millions to ensure that most secretaries of state are Democrats, placing Republican candidates for local, state and federal office at great peril. The mainstream media, of course, don’t bother to report this troubling development.

There are no laws that prohibit leftists from California to fully fund the congressional aspirations of leftist candidates in Virginia except for the individual campaign contribution limits. But, given the success of ‘bundlers’ who contribute hundreds of thousands under questionable circumstances to Democratic candidates, the current campaign finance laws leave huge loopholes open to abuse. The McCain-Feingold Act is a joke, perpetrated by two of the most cynical and self-serving members of the Senate: John McCain (a Republican in name only) and Feingold, a left-leaning Democrat. This piece of legislative garbage all but assured that incumbents would enjoy an overwhelming advantage over their challengers, while at the same time silencing critics of the incumbent officeholder. It may as well have been crafted by two Democrats.

Further, the McCain-Feingold Act doesn’t prohibit lobbyists for government-sponsored organizations such as Fanny Mae or Freddy Mac from contributing to the campaigns of Barney Frank or Chris Dodd, both implicated in the mortgage meltdown that triggered the greatest economic decline in the US economy since the Great Depression. Conflicts of interest and outright corruption riddle the election process, but the mainstream media keep this from the American public.

Organizations like A.C.O.R.N., funded with tax dollars, and unions like the SEIU and the UAW, funded with member dues, add another layer of fraud and intimidation to the election process. Both entities are national in scope, with incredible reach and enormous resources. There are no opposing organizations or funding mechanisms on the side of conservatives. In fact, the country can rely only on the fragmented, amateurish attempts of grass-roots movements like the tea-party and tax protesters to mount any kind of response to the well-financed, nationally-coordinated efforts of the Left.

So, what’s the solution? It’s critical that local candidates for office and their supporters find out who is financing the election of their Democratic opponents. For example, in Michigan, the 2008 congressional race for the 13th district was financed unknowingly by Michigan taxpayers. The Democratic candidate, Gary Peters, was appointed to a faculty position at Michigan State University through the efforts of governer Jennifer Granholm. Peters spent very little time at the university while he collected a nice taxpayer-funded salary during a two-year campaign against Republican Joe Knollenberg, who was busy in Washington fending off the Democratic majority in Congress. During this time, Knollenberg endured a signficant personal financial crisis, but didn’t even advise his own staff. In the end, supported by teacher and labor unions, and free to compaign 24/7, Peters cruised to a narrow victory over Knollenberg and promptly aligned himself with the most radical and leftist elements of the Democratic Party, per the guidance and wishes of his mentor, governor Jennifer Granholm.

This is taking place across the country. Secretaries of state are certifying elections they know to be flawed, local candidates are being outspent by Democrats funded by outstate donors, and Democratic politicians are providing state jobs for their favored candidates so that they don’t suffer any economic consequences when running against their Republican rivals. Ths is corruption at its most extreme. It makes Democrats voterproof and ultimately impervious to accountability. It smells like the Soviet Union.

Why are liberals so happy to raise your taxes? Because so many of them benefit directly from higher taxes - entitlements, government contracts, holdbacks, employment and just plain cash, or because higher taxes don’t affect them. They are either too rich or too poor to care. It’s the folks in the middle that end up carrying the load. The math is rather simple: Raise everyone’s taxes to 50% or more. Then, pour all that money into the pockets of those who don’t pay taxes or don’t pay their fair share. Or, maybe they make their entire livelihood from taxpayer dollars. It’s like winning the lottery for these people. They don’t care what the tax rate is because any money that’s realized is still a jackpot. And, if you’re politically connected, the government doesn’t expect you to work very hard to make that money.

If you make a few million with a well-placed phone call (can you spell B-I-D-E-N?) and then give up half in taxes, who cares? It’s the cost of doing business and it’s free money, anyway. In fact, it’s taxpayer money. More on that thesis: In early 2009, Andrew Wilkow, conservative talk radio guy, stated he could prove that a significant percentage of Obama’s ’stimulus’ spending would end up in various Kennedy family-owned enterprises. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Ted Kennedy’s or Caroline Kennedy’s endorsement of Barack Obama would come cheaply. Further, Barack Obama netted million-dollar paydays for ghost-written books as an unknown Illinois legislator. Did all those books get sold through real booksellers at full price? And then there’s Al Gore. By creating panic over non-existent global warning, Gore amassed a $100 million fortune in less than 8 years. Finally, there’s the grand-daddy of all political hacks — Bill Clinton, who manages to snag outsized ‘consulting’ gigs that can net him $100 million in a year’s time. What’s certain here is that liberals can make a darn good buck at being ‘concerned’ and ‘compassionate’.

Liberals and liberal politicians spend taxpayer money with a zest and enthusiasm that takes your breath away, and for some of the stupidest reasons imaginable. The basic premise is simple - if you are incompetent, lazy, stupid, ignorant, irresponsible, incorrigible and/or immoral, you will be rewarded. If you live within your means, pay your taxes and take personal responsibility for your actions, you will be preyed upon. In fact, if you uphold the law and carry your own weight, the liberals consider you a stooge, a dupe, someone who deserves to be ripped off.

The secular progressives, the liberals and the out-and-out socialists have turned this country on its head. The strengths and virtues that made this country the single greatest expression of man’s intellectual and socia potential has been perverted into a culture of entitlement and a cesspool of personal excesses. Is America perfect, or was it ever perfect? Of course not, but that doesn’t mean one gives up the effort to better oneself or society. That’s what liberals want average Americans to do: give up on the American Dream and instead opt for the false hopes and promises of socialism. They want to create a dark, dreary utopia where only the liberal elite can have a chance at happiness and prosperity.

Barack Obama has dedicated himself to destroying this country. He’s attacking the very ideals and institutions that have made this country the greatest in the history of mankind. He’s taken upon himself the grim task of gutting the Constitution, the system of checks and balances, and a free-market economy that’s the envy of the world. Why would he do this? Because he’s not familiar with the America most Americans live in. His father was Kenyan - an alcoholic womanizer who visited this country once or twice. His American mother was an ultra-liberal that flitted about the globe, dragging her young son with her as she attempted to ‘find’ herself. He spent his formative years in Indonesia attending a Muslim school. Barack Obama had no grounding in what being an American truly is, what it means, and what’s important to Americans.

Barack Obama is an exemplary orator. Too bad that what he’s spewing is pure Marxist dogma. And yet, the stupid and the gullible sop it up, quivering in joy when they hear him speak, misunderstanding his true intentions and the ‘plans’ he has for America. Even black Americans who voted for Obama had better pay attention now. If they thought their lot in life was somehow diminished during the Bush administration, just wait until Obama is done with them. The Messiah will alter their America, too. And they won’t recognize it when he’s finished.

Well-educated, well-spoken and well-dressed, Obama the demagogue told everyone what they wanted to hear. But, he was very plain and straightforward about his vision for a Marxist utopia - except nobody really listened. Now, he’s making good on his promise to ‘re-make’ America, uproot its traditions and reason for being. No, he’s not going to create some sort of Euro-style socialist state. He’s going for the throat - a full-on Marxist takeover, complete with his promised ‘internal security force’ the size of our military. Why would the Anointed One, the Great Visionary, need an internal security force composed mostly of our poorly educated and gullible students, except to create another Hitler Youth or Red Guard to impose the will of Obama and the Democratic Party on us all? It’s a frightening prospect.

The media & entertainment clowns continue to cheer him on. The conservatives continue to question his motives and methods, but they’re largely outshouted. And so, Obama goes about his business - stampeding the stupid into giving him the imprimatur to take away all of our economic freedoms. And without economic freedom, the ability to keep what you earn guaranteed by our Constitution, the freedom to vote or voice your opinion is nearly useless. No one will hear you complaining when you’re standing in a breadline.

Obama is using the banking crisis to ram through a Marxist agenda - government control of energy, healthcare and capital formation. He’s lying about his true intent, cloaking this outrageous power grab as a means to moderate the economic downturn. Creating a ‘green’ economy with unproven technology and government subsidies is not a free-standing, self-sufficient economy. Bankrupting coal producers, coal-fired energy generation, oil companies and auto companies is not going to create a rebound. Confiscating healthcare and turning it into a political weapon will not cause prosperity to materialize. And certainly, adding a huge new tax burden on economic activity will not create jobs.

But then, Obama doesn’t really care if the economy recovers at all. The worse it gets, the more power he’ll accumulate and the further our great country will slide into the clutches of a failed ideology. To the Democrats that won’t matter in the least. They’ll always have the ‘rich’ and the Republicans to blame for anything and everything that goes wrong. And when it gets really tough, fellow Democrats can meet up with their President at the White House for a cocktail on Wednesday nights and dine on $100 per pound steak. Hey, it’s free, isn’t it? Go on, a second helping couldn’t hurt…