The Coming Communist-American Auto Industry
May 29, 2009
By Tom DeWeese
Throughout our history, Americans have been inspired by many patriotic slogans such as "I have not yet begun to fight," or "I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country," or "Remember the Alamo." I don't believe the nation will find much inspiration in the Obama Administrations new one: "Remember the Yugo!"<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O />
Barack Obama promised the "nation of change," "We cannot, must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish." Nope. He has other plans. He's going to build Yugos. Well, Obama is too clever to actually say that, but Yugos will certainly be the result of the anticipated federal take-over of the American auto industry.
  Americans should all remember the Yugo- the pride of communist Yugoslavia – the first commie car to endanger American highways back in the 1980's. Small, affordable and easy on gas- the perfect modern car for our current economic and environmental crisis that the Obama Administration is hell-bent on perpetuating, regardless of economic or scientific fact.
Of course, most Yugos only ran long enough to get off the lot and into the driveway. Those lucky enough to drive them further just had to keep a bucket in the back seat for emergencies - when it was necessary to stop and pick up the parts that flew off when their Yugo hit a pot hole. In short, the Yugo was an international joke because it certainly did showcase the skills of communist workers in an industry controlled by communist bureaucrats.
Now, in the United States, where the car for the masses was born from the genius of Henry Ford's free market assembly line, Barack Obama and the Democrat Congress have declared themselves the saviors of the American auto industry. They know what Americans need best! They know how to get Americans buying American cars and get the economy going again. 
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (an auto-making genius) says Americans should drive smaller, more efficient vehicles. And she has the power to pass laws to make us do it – or at least the power to pass laws to make sure Chrysler and GM can only build the cars that Washington wants. And all Nancy and her gang of thugs in Congress have to do is pass stricter emission laws and even Ford, which hasn't taken the Federal candy, will have to comply. And that saves the auto industry – how?
The whole point of the federal takeover of the auto industry, of course, is to enforce "climate change" restrictions on the industry. The code word is "cleaner" cars. That really means eliminating CO2 emissions to protect us from global warming. And it will be so much more efficient for government to dictate it directly to an industry it now owns than trying to argue with the pesky industry professionals who keep talking about what the buying public wants. Don't they understand there is a crisis here?   
There are, of course, three problems with that plan for the auto industry. First, since the 1970s, the federal government has been dictating emission standards, setting the bar higher and higher until today, American cars literally are so clean that they emit nearly zero pollution, and they can't get any cleaner or more efficient. Second, the only way for cars to emit less CO2 is for cars to use less carbon-based fuel, and that doesn't exist. And need we say it again, science is showing more and more evidence that there is no man-made global warming, so no matter how clean the car is made to run, it won't make any difference and the regulations are completely unnecessary. Third, the American buying public doesn't want the pesky little cars and won't buy them. Detroit had better be very worried.
Obama's scheme is not the first time government has tried dictating small cars to the American public. Back in the 1970s, as a result of Jimmy Carter's man-made oil shortage, mandates were put out for smaller, more efficient Detroit cars. Remember the Pinto? As a result, all cars got smaller – even Cadillacs. Americans simply couldn't squeeze their families into the things.
That's when the environmentalists' nightmare began. To get around the hated smaller cars, Americans started buying Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs). Back then they were simply called trucks. The old fashioned, market-based Detroit automakers knew a good customer when the saw one and they started improving the trucks to be more family oriented. And the SUV revolution was on.
Today, almost every American family has one. And the government environmentalists hate it. They have been inventing rules and regulations ever since to try to get Americans out of the hated SUVs. They have tried to raise gas prices to make them unusable- didn't work. They have offered tax incentives to get us to abandon them – didn't work. So now they have just taken over Detroit. Now they will just dictate the cars Detroit can make.
            Get ready America. The Corvette, Chevy Camaro, Dodge Viper, Dodge Challenger R/T, Mustang, Cadillac CTS and the Hummer are all on the Obama chopping block – even though that's what Americans want to buy. It doesn't matter anymore. We now have government-controlled industry dictated by those who do everything through political agenda. They have a vision and it looks a lot like the Yugo.
Tom DeWeese is the President of the American Policy Center and the Editor of The DeWeese Report. TThe DeWeese Report is now available online, for more information click here.