Blackmail campaign

Nearly 400 people from more than a dozen different kinds of progressive denominations (and not all Christian) held a rally in Seattle in support of gay marriage. Washington does vote by mail, so the end of the march was at the county admin building where participants dropped their ballots into the waiting bins. The post includes some good photos.



One of the dumb conspiracy theories is that Hurricane Sandy was sent to disrupt Romney's chances (he's got to blame somebody -- it can't be him or the policies he's spouting). Mark Sumner summarizes it this way:

Republicans say God sends hurricanes. Republicans say Obama is only ahead because of Sandy. So… God must want Obama to win.

This post shows a couple other ways the Romney team has shown desperation craziness.

One of those is Romney urging businesses to tell their employees that the best interest of the company is in the best interest of the employee. Translation: if you don't vote company interests, you're fired.

This is an example of the blackmail campaign.

Paul Krugman, writing in the New York Times, expands on that idea. Various commentators (and including the Des Moines Register endorsement for president) say that Romney should be elected because he would be better able to deal with the recalcitrance of Congress. Romney would be able to work with Democrats in contrast to the way Obama couldn't work with the GOP House. After all, Dems are more reasonable.

Krugman says that is accepting "protection-racket politics" -- giving in to the GOP threat of "Vote for Romney or we trash the economy."

Hmm. I've heard talk that the economy is in recovery and if Romney wins he is poised to institute tax cuts and budget cuts and claim these things improved the economy. It seems more likely those policies (sucking money out of the middle and working classes) would stall the economy or send it spinning down again.

So we either have the threat, "Vote for Romney or we trash the economy," or Romney and the House GOP have their way and we end up with "Vote for Romney and the economy gets trashed anyway."