To say Hitler was democratically elected is an oversimplification at best. First of all, unlike the implication in Boondocks (Gruder being a militant Anti-Bushie), Bush received a demonstrably greater percentage of the electorate votes (Hitler only received 37 percent of the electorate; I forget the exact percentage of Bush but it was in the high 40's, IIRC). But okay, you can say that due to the proportional representation in government, Hitler received the largest percentage of votes compared to any candidate, right? Wrong. Hindenburg kicked his ass twice. Once in the original election--in which Hindenburg, only garnering 49.6 percent of the vote was forced into a run off with Hitler, the second place guy getting only 30 percent. And then in the next election, where Hindenburg won a 53 percent majority to Hitler's previously mentioned 37. (The other 10 percent going to whatever candidates no one really gave two shits about that were also in the runoff.)
So how did Hitler become Chancellor? Well, the issue was that Chancellor and his cabinet was usually selected by the party that had the majority of seats in Reichstag. If there was no majority, there had to be alliances forged and a Chancellor elected by the alliance that had majority. However, the various parties in Germany all hated each other and refused to work together, essentially leaving Germany without a Chancellor. Needless to say, the fledgling Democracy that Germany was was quickly falling apart. However, both the President and the Chancellor were given a lot of power under the constitution, and could wield that power at whim if either felt it was needed. Hindenburg had been known to exercise his near dictatorial powers frequently, however, he really was more concerned about the state of Germany than himself or any parties (he was a WWI general after all), so he didn't really abuse it in any real sense. Unfortunately, Hitler set into motion a series of backroom deals that got him enough support to convince Hindenburg to appoint him chancellor. Hindenburg fearing that Germany would dissolve into warring factions combined with the support Hitler garnered enabled this. Once Hitler became Chancellor, the death knell for democratic Germany was sounded. Instead of using the power to better Germany, Hitler used the power of Chancellor to better the Nazi party.
So while Hitler's rise to power might have been legal under the idiocy that was Germany's constitution, it was hardly democratic. He never would have stood a chance if the opposition parties had actually been able to get along, or if the constitution had any real checks on the powers of Chancellor and President.
And it always comes back to the Nazis (even on a new board), doesn't it?
