Personally, I’m glad to see the president out in Michigan visiting auto plants that would be shuttered without his decision to act. He might have some problems winning states in the Upper Midwest next time around, but anyone remotely connected to the auto industry should have no problem choosing him over any Republican, especially Mitt Romney.
The president didn’t just save the auto industry in Michigan; he saved a way of life. People should be grateful. It could have turned out much differently.
I wrote last time how this isn’t going the way that you think it should, BooMan. yes, Michigan should be very thankful to POTUS, but there are enough White folks who live in the luxury of delusion that makes it not so
I dunno. I live in southeast Michigan, and work in an auto related industry. And nearly everyone I know in the auto industry (admittedly mostly white folks) realize exactly how close they were to either losing their jobs or taking a major financial hit.
We’ll see how it plays out.
Maybe you could tell folks what it would have meant to Detroit and its suburbs if Romney had been president at the time.
Don’t worry, if he’s the nominee I fully plan on printing out a thousand copies of the op-ed he wrote and leaving them in restroom stalls all over the metro area.
Good. But I meant the people here in this community who are not familiar with Michigan’s culture and economy.
Oh. Right.
I guess it’s really kind of hard to imagine how things would have turned out. The thing is, the economy is turning around here and it still sucks. I have to think that if the federal government hadn’t stepped in, Michigan would quite possibly be the largest economic catastrophe this country has ever seen.
I’ll delve into some anecdotal data just to paint a picture. Here are the careers of 5 of my closest friends who do not work for University of Michigan (which is an industry in and of itself).
One works for a third party supplier engineering throttle bodies and control systems for the big 3.
Two work for advertising agencies. For one, their biggest client (by far) is Chevy. The other (by far) is Ford.
One works for a digital imaging and video production company. Their biggest client is one of the aforementioned ad agencies.
And one works directly for Ford. He’s been there for nine years.
5 people, 5 jobs that probably wouldn’t have been there if Romney had his way. 2 of them definitely wouldn’t have had jobs anymore, and they know it. All of them own homes. All but one of them have kids (one has 2, so, 5 kids total).
Ann Arbor is, by and large, its own little island due to U of M. But outside of that, in this part of the state literally EVERYTHING is tied in to the auto industry. My friends are all college grads, but if they lost their jobs, you can bet there would be a lot of other collateral damage. Restaurants, specialty stores, etc. that would no longer have customers, which would kill off the lower income bracket as well.
And when I talk about a way of life, without the auto industry, you guys wouldn’t even know what to talk about. Imagine the center of the auto industry in Nashville or Knoxville. Non-unionized, the way Corker and Shelby wanted it.
And don’t forget, everyone one of the Pukes in the House at the time from Michigan voted for the auto bailout. That should tell you something, also, too. Make those fuckers either go back on their word, or repudiate Romney. You want to fracture and destroy the GOP? That’s one way you do it.
I hope you remind them everytime you see them that the U.S. Auto Industry was SAVED by President Barack Obama. Not even really the Democrats, it was PRESIDENT OBAMA.
Make that clear.
There are two related, but distinct, points to make about the (profitable) loan the government made to save the American auto industry: