< Detroit vs... Everyone. / >

In a rare display of visible editorial anger, the Detroit News of July 21 has not only run the same opinion twice but has also left some glaringly bad editing out on display. And why? Because John McCain "is wrong again on auto industry rules" as he "flops on emissions standards."

At issue is McCain's affirmation that states — and the state of California in particular — have a right to define and enforce their own automobile emissions standards, independent of the Federal government and its destroy-everything Environmental "Protection" Agency. The phrasing of McCain's alleged approval, "I guess, at the end of the day, I support [it]," isn't exactly a ringing endorsement, and is couched in so much speculative filler that it can easily be revised or erased at any time, but this didn't stop the Detroit News' columnist Daniel Howes from attacking the "zealots in the California Assembly" and asking McCain's campaign staff, "[W]hy waste time here [in Michigan]?"

Who does Mr. Howes turn to for a supporting quote? A nameless "executive with [an] automaker," who wonders why Senator McCain is trying to lose votes in Michigan — a point with which Howes emphatically agrees. In contrast, he writes, Barack Obama is at least "showing a little Midwestern love for the autos," but this is the Detroit News — a voice of conservatism. So you have to look carefully in order to see that when Howes writes that "rhetorical support for automakers shouldn't be limited to those the intelligentsia deems politically correct," he's talking about the very same candidate: Barack Obama.

So, Obama shows Motown some love, and Motown is a hater in return?

Obama understands that Michigan will be a pivotal electoral vote in November, Howes writes in conclusion, but McCain doesn't. Asks the columnist: "How come?"

You can almost hear him moaning: Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?

Then the big Editorial Guns pick up where the mere opinion columnist leaves off. "So far, McCain hasn't got much of anything right when it comes to the auto industry," writes the News itself on the editorial page. "Allowing states to set their own emission standards would default to California the job of regulating automobiles. That won't be good for Michigan or for American auto workers."

And there it is, right there. Terminal myopia, chronic self-concern, end-stage fuckyouism. The voice of Detroit's conservatives is unwilling to see anything like a wider picture, but if it took only a little peek it would see that California isn't just California — New York, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, Minnesota, Maine, and Rhode Island have all subscribed to the Schwarzenegger State's strict emissions guidelines. The News might also take a look at California's sheer enormity — cut it out of a map and lay it over any area in Europe or the Middle East. Do any of those countries have a right to determine their own clean air and fuel efficiency standards?

And does Detroit have the moral and ethical right to say "fuck off and die" to every human being not living in Michigan, U.S.A., or not working for a U.S.-based car-related manufacturer? The issue, after all, isn't automobile emissions. It's planetary survival.

As Lee Iacocca, father of the Ford Mustang and former CEO of Chrysler used to say: "Lead, follow, or get out of the way." But don't just stand there and block the path. We've had enough of that during eight years of Bush/Cheney-enforced environmental paralysis.

Nearly 50 years ago, California said it wanted some of the emissions from a car's tailpipe to be recirculated and diluted. Detroit screamed foul — and then invented the PCV valve, a tiny, cheap part that did exactly what California wanted. Who benefitted? Every person on the planet.

The other litanies of Detroit's painful bellowing are well known: No seat belts! No air bags! No antilock brakes! No small cars! No fuel efficiency! And then, Detroit made them happen — well, the first three, anyway — and made a profit, too. So what the hell.

"The automakers need to be left alone for a while," the Detroit News pleads, not realizing the utter irony of those words as millions of customers abandon GM, Ford, and Chrysler and chuck brand loyalty out the window. "Until they get that, neither McCain nor Obama should not (sic) be considered a friend to Michigan's most vital industry."

As if Michigan's most vital industry has itself ever been a friend to anyone.
.