Think for a minute what your town will resemble once Congress leaves the American Auto Industry to twist in the wind.  What kind of spirit will people have when they drive down the miracle mile of the local dealershis and see that all the dealerships have only foreign cars.  We are already close, but you have to board up the windows of the American dealerships to really get the picture.  You also have to question how the rest of the automakers will make it as overnight the economy goes Supernova and more then a million jobs turn to dust.

Having the Connecticut dealerships represented in Washington DC today provided a better look at the gravity of the present situation.  Connecticut lost 25 dealerships this year alone.  The 29th most populous state might offer a pretty good representative of average America on the one hand, but due to it's population density, it is actually a poor example.  Less densely populated states with more isolated communites are going to suffer much worse then this.  It seems probable that the "death toll" will continue to rise in 2009 as well.

If one listens objectively, one has to admit that Detroit has already been tranforming itself.  They began long before Paulson cried, "Uncle!!!"  The recently released fact that we have been in a recession for more then a year is NOT news to Detroit.  In fact, one could argue it is not news to any other automaker in the world.  Those foreighn auto makers are also begging their government for assistance as well.  Detroit is assking for loans in a credit crisis.  If Wall Street has $700 billion, why aren;t they lending Detroit the money?  Detroit is asking for a small fraction of the funds being given to Wall Street.

What the US automakers have not yet been able to achieve is a perceptive change in the American people.  Has anyone ever truly let it sink into their heads that Chevrolet has more vehicles doing better then 30 mpg then any other manufacturer.  I assumed that honor would go to Japan, or Korea!  Didn't you?  Did anyone know Chrysler is actually the leader in electric cars at this time?  The Chevy Volt is soon to arrive.  It's far past being a concept car.  They're simply fine tuning the final poroduct at this point.  But I thought the leaders were Honda and Toyota in the race to power vehicles with alternative energy?  In fact, it is not so.

It seems this whole attack on the US auto industry is nothing more then union busting.  There is a great deal of resentment that autoworkers have managed to retain their pensions and their healthcare.  It's not fair!!!  What? It is not fait that autoworkers have managed to retain their benefits, or that others have lost their's in industries that lack organized labor?  People should realize that maybe, if they had stuck together, they would not have lost been subject to the broken promises.  They could have had someone at the table who truly represented them.  Bash the unions, but it's better to have soe evoice at the table then none at all.  It's better to have another set of eyes on the books then just the owners/managers.

Michael Jordan's late father used to ask, when someone would question him whether the glass was half full or half empty, "Who's pouring?"  Congress is pouring and they have filled the glasses of Wall Street and the are neglecting not merely Main Street, but the Miracle Mile.  This will be the end of the American dream if we let the domestic auto industries fail.  But it will be the beginning of a new world order, one where workers have less say in how they are compensated.  In twenty years, when people ask an old, frail Dubya how did his Presidency go he will say only two words, "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!"