Orlando CEO to employees: "If Obama gets reelected, I'll probably fire you"

[pbrower2a]

I actually think is a good thing. Americans generally have no idea how public policy can affects the lives of people, themselves included. At least this way, they get a pretty good lesson of why politics matters. Voting should never merely be an issue of conscience, like how American culture tries to paint it as.

I see nothing wrong with businesses telling employees what the best interests of the ownership and management of the company is. That does not imply that an employer has a right to dictate how employees vote, let alone dictate what sort of political activity is proscribed to them on personal time, let alone threaten people with termination of employment for being a member of the 'wrong' political Party. 

If employers have a right to dictate how employes vote, then we have something other than democracy. 

[pbrower2a]

Exactly so. Unions tell people the same thing. If it's ok for the unions, I can't see why it would be wrong for businesses.

Unions cannot get people fired for voting contrary to the union line.

There could of course be consequences of discriminatory behavior of a company if, for example, it prohibits  a vehicle with an Obama bumper sticker or a sticker with a "Rmoney" parody from being parked in the parking lot.

[pbrower2a]

I'm glad to know that voter intimidation by their employers is not a feature only of undeveloped democracies

It could be a sign of a dying democracy -- one in which economic interests decide what is 'right' and 'wrong'.   

[pbrower2a]

I really don't understand the outrage. It really might be a cultural thing, because I was raised pretty leftist, but without the anti-corporate bias/paranoia that a lot of people get through the American pop culture.

The raw truth is that most giant corporations consider their employees as expendable objects who have the obligation to take risks that if they succeed largely work for their employers. Such is almost certain to cause mass contempt for distant shareholders and executives, and that has nothing to do with mass culture. You can trust that the UAW, the Teamsters, SEIU, UMW, Steelworkers, CWA, NEA, et al.  have no role in creating American mass culture. The Screen Actors' Guild has no veto power over screenplays.

Corporate America can flood the airways with Orwellian propaganda because of deep pockets and no regulation of fairness in media. The only constraint is that of mass rejection of the ludicrous.   

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Your boss and your union head might have opposite ideas of whom to vote for. it's clear that if a politician threatens your ability to hold a job, including by threatening to outlaw your industry, you might find voting for such a politician absurd. 

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The American political system was never designed to represent economic interests. Our Constitution long preceded the establishment of any modern-style giant enterprises. The first company to be established as a giant company was DuPont in 1802... and not until the time of the railroads were there the giant entities that 'needed' representation in Congress. (Those giant entities got such representation anyway during the Gilded Age, but that is a different story.

Representation based upon ownership of assets is either feudal (based upon big landowners dominating the political system with personal power in proportion to land ownership) or fascist. It is hard to see what good would come from granting a right to representation in Congress (The Tenth Representative of Exxon-Mobil is allotted time to speak on the Transportation bill). Such would invite the sort of political corruption rampant in Italy under Mussolini.

Strength of ideas must trump economic power in electoral politics - lest what we no longer be a democracy.