Clearly Yglesias is right that a party which is currently enjoying an energized base thanks to an ever-more-violent, and self-created, storm of nativist bigotry and religious hatred would never stoop so low as to play games with the economy for electoral advantage. Unthinkable! What a totally unfair accusation!

How could anyone say a party which routinely uses bogus "culture war" issues to keep the rabble roused and turning out during elections would ever take advantage of the tendency for people to vote against the President's party during times of economic downturn ?