If Democrats Are Power-Mad, They Have A Funny Way of Showing It

The election is one week from today and Hurricane Sandy is knocking the hell out of the east coast. Subways are flooding, substations are blowing up, and millions are without electricity. I have yet to see any paranoid reactionaries claiming that Obama is going to use this disaster to postpone the election and remain in power in perpetuity, but that might be because I haven’t read the entire internet yet.

On the other hand, I had already heard similar ranting even before Sandy hit. “The Dems will do anything to stay in power!” according to one ranter. Yes, indeed--like pushing for voter ID laws aimed at disenfranchising people most likely to vote Democratic (here). And systematically losing, discarding, or destroying Democratic voter registrations (here). And misleading Spanish-speaking voters into thinking voter ID is required (here). And just plain telling different Spanish-speaking people the election is on Thursday the 8th (here). Man, we Democrats are ruthless.

These paranoid fantasies spring up every election year, and tend to be believed by people predisposed to believe the worst about the party they’re not voting for. I wasn’t concerned when I heard the rumors in 2004 (remember how Bush was going to postpone the election because, uh, terrorism?), or in 2008 (believe he was going to declare martial law that time). I’m not concerned now, nor should anyone else be. For one reason, the president doesn’t have the power to reschedule an election. For another, remember these are Democrats we’re talking about. Even if there was an ounce of deviousness in the party, they’d look for a way to use it in a bipartisan manner.

If Democrats really wanted to stay in power, they’d do a better job of persuading nonmillionaire voters not to screw themselves by voting Republican. But I don’t see that happening.