I hope everyone enjoyed their holiday! Today’s post is from Stephen L. Hall.
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First, let me explain the reasoning and rationale of those bureaucrats who seek to expand their power and authority at the expense of liberty.
In a recent article referenced on drudgereport.com in big, bold red letters describes how Homeland Security has been “considering declaring the election a ‘critical infrastructure,’ giving it the same control over security it has over Wall Street and and (sic.) the electric power grid.”
What Drudge failed to do was to explain why this issue was so important that it merited the big red letters of warning.
Before looking at their excuses for their power grab, perhaps it is best to look at their corruption of the English language.
The very concept of ‘critical infrastructure’ first requires that it first be infrastructure. Infra- is a prefix meaning below or within; when in the context of infrastructure meaning the substructure or foundational underpinnings of society. Structure meaning, using the definition most charitably to them, “something arranged in a definite pattern of organization”, according to Merriam-Webster.
The concept of elections being so crucial to the functioning of society that it should be taken over by the feds is without question a major power grab, but is it such a definite pattern of organization that it forms the very basis or substructure of our society? In other words, are elections “infrastructure”.
Elections are different in every state, determined and controlled by the state’s laws and officials, therefore there is not national “definite pattern of organization”. Further, there is only one office in the entire country which is on a national scale, and that election is technically not even directly for said office.
Only the President is a nation wide election. But we do not elect a President, we vote for electors to the electoral college. It is they who elect the President. Is this one single office, the only office elected indirectly, of such a vital significance that the foundational structure of our society rests upon it? That would only be the case if we were a dictatorship, not a republic.
Homeland Security reasons that in light of the FBI identifying a couple new cyber attacks on state election boards, that these elections should magically fall into their own jurisdiction. Of course this speaks more to the vulnerable nature of electronic vote tabulation and the ability to rig an election through a simple hacking than the difficult process of putting together a full blown conspiracy of ballot box tampering which could never be accomplished on a national level.
Homeland Security Secretary Jeb Johnson stated, “There’s a vital national interest in our election process, so I do think we need to consider whether it should be considered by my department and others critical infrastructure.” DHS already has its claws in 16 different areas which it has deemed “critical infrastructure”.
But at least Johnson has identified the biggest impediment to the DHS power grab that it is not a national election system, “There’s no one federal election system. There are some 9,000 jurisdictions involved in the election process.”
So why do I say that this would be a shredding of the Constitution when these other articles do not imply that there would be any constitutional question involved, much less a crisis of the Constitution itself?
“The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.” Paragraph 1, Section 4, Article I, US Constitution.
“Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members . . . .” Paragraph 1, Section 5, Article I, US Constitution.
This is why. The Constitution makes each House the Judge of its own Elections, how can they be the Judge of their own Elections and Returns if the Department of Homeland Security is in control of those elections.
The odd thing is that agencies, all federal agencies, including the DHS, are executive in nature not legislative. If the DHS took charge of the elections by their own “special declaration”, then the elections cease to be the legislative will of the people and become the will of the executive.
Now, I do know that state elections are generally conducted by the various Secretaries of State for each state, which are themselves executive offices in their respective states; however, being from a state with a long history of vote fraud and corruption, one wonders whether the allocation of that responsibility to the executive rather than the legislative may, in part, be part of the reason.
Imagine a President, at this juncture whether Clinton or Trump is irrelevant for this purpose, who has the power to appoint the agency officers of that agency which determines the election of the Senators and Representatives which will approve or disprove their agendas and more importantly their Supreme Court nominees.
If one were to presume a dishonest President, who would partisanly stack the Supreme Court, as well as stack the Congress, then the party of the President becomes a virtual dictatorship. Fortunately we are blessed with Presidential candidates of honor and integrity, and we can all trust federal agencies such as the IRS to not act in a partisan political fashion.
The concept of the separation of powers, however, is of critical importance and fundamental to the very structure of our republic. The irony is that by allegedly attempting to preserve what they pretend is our “critical infrastructure”, they will readily destroy that which actually is our “critical infrastructure”, the separation of powers.
A follow-up article appearing on Drudge brings up these very concerns regarding the Constitutional problems arising from such a power grab. Additionally they point out that the DHS itself is not immune from being hacked itself. If they can’t protect themselves, then what are they really trying to do?
