THE AUTOEXTREMIST

December 12, 2008

It’s up to you Mr. President.

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. The U.S. Senate late last night voted against passage of a bill to give an emergency bridge loan to the Detroit automakers – specifically GM and Chrysler - paving the way for the eventual collapse of the domestic automobile industry and sending this country’s already teetering financial situation to the brink of disaster.

The inaction - a blatantly malicious display of placing political self-interests before the best interests of the nation – was orchestrated by Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Mitch McConnell (R-KY), two men who are pushing “the Southern Corridor” – a network of transplant manufacturing facilities operated by some import car companies – as the new American auto industry, even though it means destroying the foundation of America’s manufacturing base and ruining the livelihoods of millions of people - including auto workers, dealers and suppliers - who depend on the domestic automobile industry for their livelihoods, not to mention their health care and pensions.

Besides sending a clear message to Detroit - yet again - that this industry doesn’t matter, the Senators behind the failure to get the bill passed reinforced the notion that too much of the rest of the country, for the most part, refuses to understand the ramifications of what a collapse of the domestic automobile industry really means, and that the attitude of “it won’t affect me” and “whatever” are the new dual mantras of the American people.

That we have become a Starbucks Nation of consumer zombies who have lost sight of the fact that this country’s ability to manufacture things is more important to the future of our country than the convenience of another coffee shop is appalling enough, but the fact that this country has become a patchwork quilt of warring factions hell-bent on destroying each other no matter what the cost to our fellow citizens is beyond reprehensible.

Over the last three weeks I’ve watched as those miserable excuses for our “representatives” in Washington have spewed so much misinformation and flat-out lies aimed at Detroit and the domestic automobile industry that I’ve lost track in trying to tally all of it up, but suffice to say at this juncture it really doesn’t matter.

What happened in Washington last night was one of the most egregious displays of selfish, narrow-minded thinking in the history of our nation. Facts were either misrepresented or ignored altogether and dire warnings were scoffed at, while our nation is in its most precarious financial state in seven decades.

The bottom line is that hard-working people involved in an industry that has tentacles in every state and accounts for 1 out of every 10 American jobs are being punished today because of two self-righteous Senators who think their view of things should be the country’s view.

That an industry that supported the American middle class for 100 years, that forged the Arsenal of Democracy during WWII, that has responded to every disaster and national crisis by giving endlessly of time, money, vehicles and resources, that an industry that makes up the majority of our nation’s manufacturing and research & development prowess – to the tune of $12 billion annually - has become expendable.

The anti-car, anti-Detroit cabal alive in Washington and in certain corners of the media has seized the opportunity to bury Detroit and the domestic automobile industry once and for all, and in so doing have set into motion the final erosion of the American industrial fabric, sending a message to the world that this nation has not only lost its will to fight and is incapable of protecting one of its essential industries, it has willingly set a course for long-term weakness and vulnerability.

Mr. President, countless American families are calling on you to keep this essential American industry going. We hope you see it to do the right thing.

Thanks for listening.