Should workers side with bosses on politics?
Mitt Romney thinks your boss should decide who you vote for.
Literally.
In a conference call over the summer just released to the public this week, Mitt Romney told a group of business owners that there is “nothing illegal” about them telling their employees just whom they should vote for.
“I hope you make it very clear to your employees what you believe is in the best interest of your enterprise and therefore their job and their future in the upcoming elections,” Romney said on a conference call organized by the conservative National Federation of Independent Businesses.
“Nothing illegal about you talking to your employees about what you believe is best for the business, because I think that will figure into their election decision, their voting decision and of course doing that with your family and your kids as well.”
So, to paraphrase Romney’s instructions to business owners: Tell your employees to vote for me … or else.
Now, thanks to the Citizens United ruling, there’s nothing illegal about what Romney is suggesting, but that doesn’t make it sketchy as all get out. Romney is actively encouraging his supporters to boost his chances through intimidation and coercion.
And intimidation is exactly what this is: Romney wants your boss to tell you who you should vote for — and that your boss should make clear just how bad it will be for you if you don’t listen.
I’m not sure about you, dear reader, but I’m not comfortable with my boss trying to tell me how I should vote. I’m definitely not comfortable if that conversation includes a threat — implied or otherwise — that my job depends on my decision, as Romney suggests that it should.
(Now, for those whose cognitive dissonance is keeping them from realizing the inherit ickiness of this whole thing — let me preempt your likely retort. This is not the same thing as a union encouraging their members to vote for a candidate because there’s no audio recording of Barack Obama telling union leaders they should threaten the livelihoods of members who don’t listen.)
This kind of thinking should be reserved for the farthest fringes — not the guy who wants to be president. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to elect a guy who thinks that those at the top should use their influence to control those below them. That doesn’t exactly smell of the stuff that this great democracy was founded on. That Romney wants your boss to ” make it very clear” that if you don’t vote for him that you’re not voting in the best interest of your “job and future” is, in my humble opinion, the kind of stuff of Soviet Russia, not these United States of America.
Despite its legality, it still strikes me as blatantly unethical for an employer to try to bully employees into voting a certain way. And it is even worse that Romney is actively encouraging it.
(Between this secret audio and the now famous “47 percent” secret video, it’s pretty clear what Romney’s real attitude toward the bulk of this country is, no matter what moderate things he says during debates. In the end, I guess it’s not surprising that a guy of Romney’s affluence and inheritance thinks that the guy in charge should be able to tell the great unwashed what to do.)
Even before news of this icky Romney audio came out this week, scores of uber-conservative CEOs were taking Romney’s advice to heart. To wit:
The obscenely wealthy Koch brothers (also known as the finance wing of the GOP) sent their 45,000 employees a literal list of whom to vote for in November, with the warning that if Obama is re-elected those employees “may suffer the consequences.”
Then there’s the CEO of a software company that sent his 1,000+ employees an email that said he didn’t “want to hear any complaints regarding the fallout that will most likely come” if they help reelect Obama.
And, of course, most egregiously is the billionaire owner of a massive timeshare company (and owner of the country’s largest home) who told 6,500+ employees that “the economy doesn’t currently pose a threat to your job. What does threaten your job however, is another 4 years of the same presidential administration.”
These aren’t rumors or speculation. These CEO threats (like Romney’s audio of the conference call) are all on the record. This is the kind of stuff that Romney stands for — this is the kind of stuff he’s actively encouraging. I guess the GOP is only for freedom and liberty from government; they’re perfectly happy if your boss can control your life outside of work.
So, dear reader, if you’re comfortable with a country where your boss gets to tell you how to vote and threatens your livelihood if you don’t listen, then, by all means, support Mitt Romney.
By the way, in 1980, the average CEO made 42 times the average worker. In 2010, the average CEO made 380 times the average worker. They’ve clearly got a lot to complain about. Brandon Szuminsky can be reached at bszuminsky@heraldstandard.com.