History shows we can never underestimate or take for granted the importance of voting.

Through an excellent series of documentaries on the American Heroes Channel, formerly the Military Channel, we've been learning how Germany's Adolf Hitler rose from being a penniless 20-year-old wandering the streets of Vienna and sleeping in bars, flophouses and shelters to become the ruthless dictator who conquered most of Europe. During the 1920s and early 1930s he was propelled by the social, political and economic upheaval and through a ruthless personal guard called the SS that eliminated any opposition that stood in his way.Unfortunately, Germany had nothing like the U.S. Constitution in place to provide a system of checks and balances and block a ruler like Hitler from becoming too powerful. Hitler received just 18 percent of the popular vote in the 1930 elections, and when he ran for president in 1932, received 30 percent.Through political maneuvering he was able to force the eventual victor, Paul von Hindenburg, into making him chancellor in exchange for his political support in January 1933. When Hindenburg died in August 1934, Hitler was the consensus successor, and through his army and a strong propaganda machine, was able to keep the German people in the dark about his quest for world domination, even though he had outlined his plan in a speech in November 1937.So in less than three decades, Hitler rose from a penniless loser to become one of the most evil dictators the world has ever known.To be good citizens, however, we play an important role by performing our civic duties and voting.Our forefathers set up the system to check any dictatorships and to preserve inalienable rights to life, liberty and property. The most important safeguards for liberty are freedom of religion and freedom of speech, which Hitler was able to quash to maintain power.Some voters have told us that they often vote for the lesser of two evils when there's a tight race between candidates. Even though our current political climate is very polarized, it's up to us to become well-informed voters and to choose the most qualified and honest candidates.There is another saying that says that for evil men to accomplish their purpose it is only necessary that good men should do nothing. We could amend that sentence by saying that perhaps all it takes for evil to triumph is for good men not to vote.By Jim Zbickeditor@tnonline.com