Patriots Fighting ‘The Ballot Box Establishment’
May 31, 2012 by Sam Rolley
http://personallibertycom.files.word...0530_image.jpgPHOTOS.COMDoes corruption begin at the ballot box?
Throughout the country, liberty-loving Americans are fighting uphill battles in an effort to save the Nation from what has become collectively known as a political “establishment” that is destroying the rights of the citizenry and distorting the visions of the Founders through a culture of corruption.
Some patriots are holding rallies so that their elected representatives and neighbors can see that the number of Americans angered by government ineptitude is growing. Some patriots are circulating petitions to fight against Federal abuses of the Constitution such as the National Defense Authorization Act or the ongoing push by the government to censor the Internet. Even government’s penchant for spending money to line the pockets of special interests — while America is going bankrupt — is under attack.
The patriot movement, as illustrated by the spirited Presidential campaign of Ron Paul, is alive, well and growing. With this growth comes the opportunity to change from within those things that the government does so poorly, a process that begins with American patriots — not party-line robots — seeking office and winning elections.
Unfortunately, outsiders are rarely welcomed by the corrupt “establishment” that now realizes its stranglehold on American policy from town halls to the halls of Congress is under great threat from masses armed with Constitutional knowledge and a loving respect for the founding principles of the Nation.
This is where American patriots like Floridians Charles Klein and Sally Baptiste enter the unfolding story of a new kind of conservative political activism in the United States. Klein and Baptiste, who describes herself as being a Tea Partier before Tea Parties were cool, have been working together as activist patriots in their locale of Orange County for more than eight years. They both joined their local Republican Executive Committee with the idea that they would have an opportunity to clean the party from within. That is when the frustrations began.
Baptiste launched a failed bid for Mayor of Orange County in 2006, a race that one University of Central Florida political science professor described to the Orlando Sentinel as “…a classic battle between the political insider and the political outsider.” The incumbent, Republican Rich Crotty, the newspaper says, “waged a machine-style campaign that scared off big-name challengers and he blazes the political trail with slick TV commercials and mailers paid for by a vast list of business backers.”
Conversely, Baptiste raised and spent about $24,000 during the campaign, most of it her own, according to reports. On the issues, the candidates also failed to see eye to eye on public spending. While Crotty pushed for the use of tax money on large-scale transport and public-growth initiatives, Baptiste wanted to take a closer look at responsible finances and how residents’ tax dollars were already being spent.
With a campaign war chest of nearly $1 million — much of which Baptiste said likely came from development interests – the Republican Committee-favored Crotty defeated his self-funded challenger.
This is when Baptiste says that she and Klein realized there was a common root to the problem of political corruption at the local, State and Federal level: “The Ballot Box Establishment.”
It is through “The Ballot Box Establishment,” Baptiste contends, that political insiders and special interests are able to control all levels of government because the Republican and Democratic Parties along with various governmental offices and agencies are working in collusion to control the results of elections at every level.
“The Ballot box is a joke, a fraud,” Baptiste said in an interview with Personal Liberty Digest™.
Focusing on how both the Republican and Democratic Parties have taken over the election system in their home State, Klein and Baptiste were able to put together a complaint on behalf of “We the People” and filed it with the FBI.
We the People v. The Ballot Box Establishment is how Baptiste and Klein hope to expose what they consider the monopolization of the electoral process in Florida by “The Ballot Box Establishment.” For example, one portion of the complaint evokes the Sherman Anti-Trust Act in questioning whether the RNC and DNC “conspire with State Legislators to control the outcome of elections.”
From the complaint:Legislative actions which includes the new Florida law that prohibits changing of political parties prior to the election, the establishment of unreasonable filing fees for candidates in an attempt to keep the average citizen from actively seeking public office and manipulating the primary dates to affect the outcome. The Republican Party of Florida has directly conspired with the Florida Legislature to change the date of the Presidential primary election.
This constitutes collusion between the Republican Party of Florida and the State of Florida, violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. Thus, violating and denying the average American Citizens the right to be an active participant in their government as afforded to them by the Founding Documents of the United States of America.
Baptiste believes that the “collusion” between the two major parties and elected officials in enacting laws and regulations that manipulate elections is happening in every locale, State and undoubtedly in Washington, D.C. Unless that changes, Baptiste believes Americans have forever lost their vote.
“Why would some of these policies be put in place by the RNC and DNC except to protect the political status quo?” Baptiste asked. “In Florida, the fee to be eligible to run as a partisan candidate in a U.S. House or U.S. Senate race is $10,440. Why? Unless they are trying to exclude new candidates who are not party establishment favorites?”
Though the complaint filed with the FBI is specific to her State, Baptiste said she would encourage anyone who feels disenfranchised by the two-party system to follow her and Klein’s lead. The complaint they filed could be tailored to suit other locales.
The bottom line, according to Baptiste, is that Americans need to clean up the election system so that they will be able to vote for candidates they like rather than those that have been pushed upon them by ranking members of the establishment parties.
Baptiste said she hopes that the FBI will investigate the complaint and has heard encouraging comments from legal professionals who believe it is worth investigation. If she had millions of dollars to spend, she said she would file a suit based on the complaint.
“I think we have a lot there that got the agent’s attention,” she said. “We knew they weren’t going to jump right on it. But, whether we want to admit it or not, they are part of the establishment. So we’ll see what happens.”
When called for comment about the status of the complaint that was filed on May 4, an agent who previously interviewed Baptiste and Klein told Personal Liberty he “did not have time to discuss that” and promptly hung up the phone.
Regardless of what comes of We the People v. The Ballot Box Establishment, Baptiste says she is going to continue to add to her list of examples of election corruption. She encourages anyone (including any Ron Paul supporters who had trouble with the GOP establishment) who has witnessed election corruption to go to americanstatesman.org to sign on with “We the People” and share information.
Patriots Fighting=