[Swiftwater Gazette] The Camel Car

[Ed Kroposki]

Industrial Policy Arrives In The USA

By James G. Wiles, For The Bulletin
Friday, April 03, 2009
A camel, the old saw goes, is a horse designed by a committee.

With the change of name at Detroit from General Motors to Obama Motors, can a similar change in American-made cars be far behind? Brace yourself, America, for the return of Trabant — the car which gave Communism a bad name.

The Trabant, made in East Germany from 1957–1989 (when the Wall came down), was a triumph of socialist engineering. With a top speed of 70, a two-stroke, lawn mower engine which generated 26 HP and a body made from Duroplast, a resinous compound often containing cotton or wool, the Trabi emitted six times the average amount of pollution as other European cars and burned like a torch when hit. Among other movies, the car starred in Go, Trabi, Go, a German comedy produced in 1990.

It’s now achieved cult status, with green models said to be lucky, and a Serbian rock band featuring the song, “Blue Trabant.” The car is also featured in U-2 videos and on the album Achtung, Baby.


Given the infamy of the Trabant name, doubtless the new GM sedan (all other brands will be eliminated, especially the Cadillac) will be all gravitas and will be called the “Barack.” It will be available in only one color, will have a maximum speed of 70 and have solar panels on the roof. For those seeking a sportier look, there will be the “Michelle,” a coupe featuring a choice of bright colors, a convertible top, a trunk in which you can grow organic vegetables and, natch, a fuzzy interior.

Oh, and muscle tires on the front.

This buffoonery is by way of introducing a far more serious topic: the takeover this week of a second American industry (the first was financial services) by the federal government. Chrysler, Washington has decreed, is to be sold to the Italian company, Fiat. GM will be controlled by a board of directors whose majority is appointed by the government and whose new CEO is acceptable to the White House.

Somehow, no one has thought to even mention that these companies make most of the U.S.’s military vehicles. Chrysler, for instance, makes our main battle tank.

Not even Franklin Roosevelt, at the height of the Depression, dreamed of exercising such control. Only the Bolsheviks in Soviet Russia after the October Revolution and the fascists in Italy, Germany, Japan and Spain had such power. Now we have it being wielded here by Mr. Obama and the wizards he’s brought with him to Washington.

Ronald Reagan, of course, correctly warned us that: “a government strong enough to give us everything we want is also a government strong enough to take from us everything we have.” It is because of the failings and corruption of American capitalism and American government that Obama et al. have been enabled to start us down the path we are headed on. I cheer Rick Wagoner’s departure from GM; if he hadn’t had a self-selected board of directors made up of pet rocks, it would have happened long ago.

The contrast with Ford Motors, where the Ford family is still in control, and clearly is willing to go down with the ship rather than surrendering — and instructive. Somewhere, deep in the fires of hell (remember River Rouge and the Battle of the Overpass!), Old Henry is smiling his chilly Ulsterman’s smile.

In the meantime, while Secretary Geitner works on crafting conditions for the TARP which give the feds veto power over all fundamental management decisions at our major financial institutions, expect the idea of “federal chartering” of our major corporations to re-emerge in Congress after nearly 40 years of oblivion. This is the idea, first promoted by the Progressives and Teddy Roosevelt in the early 1900s, that big corporations should be governed by a federal corporate code and the federal courts rather than by state corporation laws and state courts. Long championed by Ralph Nader, it was last prominent in the mid-’70s after Watergate.

Finally, looking at the obvious violations of federalism and the separation of powers inherent in the stimulus bill, the TARP bail-out and other Obamanotions, it seems to me it’s time for a little “public interest litigation,” this time commenced by conservatives. After all, it was the federal courts, in such cases as Schecter Poultry, which nixed the first New Deal, including the industrial codes of the National Recovery Administration. It’s time for Barack’s wizards to receive their own dose of that medicine.

Let a thousand lawsuits bloom!

James G. Wiles can be reached at jwiles at thebulletin.us

http://www.theeveningbulletin.com/
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