Ultra Right Faultline

You have to ask yourself: how could the automakers go so horribly wrong?

A little story may help answer that. One day some years ago I noticed a colleague drove into the parking lot in a new SUV. I asked him how come. He said "Al Gore made this movie about global warming. I couldn't let him get away with it. I had to do something."

Thats what I call the Ultra Right Republican faultline. This need to oppose anything 'progressive' as being 'liberal'. Lets not even go into when liberal became a bad word in the US. In the rest of the world, and throughout history, liberal generally meant good. When liberal denotes bad, you know where things are headed. Backwards. Ultraconservative. I had a boss (also republican) who told me change was bad (in the context of manufacturing). Change caused problems. Just stick to the status quo, dont question it or seek to improve it. In effect, worship the holy cow . I pointed out (politely) that all progress involves change, so if change was bad progress was bad. He looked at me like I was a martian.

I guess Detroit was dominated by the ultra right, who figured that large tasteless cars were part of the American way of life, and that a majority of Americans would stay with them. Small, fuel efficient Japanese cars were unamerican, liberal, democrat. A flimsy passing fad, that would yield to the real thing. Which is probably why they came to Congress for a bailout without a plan. They didnt really see the need for change. They only saw the need for cash to run the business, which would doubtless improve once the economy got better and the frivolous liberal fads passed on.

Of course I exaggerate. A little. But only to prove a point.