The "politics of crowded spaces" is always intrusive, because in city interactions, often times it is intrusive with people only only deal with exactly once. The Jersey wiseguy thinks he gets the better of you because he hustles harder, the SF progressive thinks he/she/it gets to decide because they are more sophisticated than you, in the end it doesn't matter in how they want that power. The Dems trade as much on that thuggishness as they do on smug paternalism. That MI poll worker intimidation case is exactly this kind of mindset at work.