Eric and Irene

I stumbled across this NY Times editorial a few days ago and thought it seemed relevant to the themes we were talking about regarding Democracy. Is the behavior Krugman is discussing here - "threatening to hurt America if its demands aren't met" - the kind of morally questionable act one would expect of a Ratcliffe figure, or is it a reasonable maneuver for a time of extreme political strife?

Link: Eric and Irene