After a significant amount of deliberation, I have this unequivocal statement to make: large government is not a bad thing. In matters like the governing of a state, go big or go home. The Republicans I know and am good friends with are speaking to me as though a government is a necessary evil--as though the ideal form of government is something not far from anarchy. This is an introspective soliloquy--I want to clarify my position on several matters of modern political import. I want to explain my above assertions--and I cannot stress this enough--I will need more space than a single essay can afford. And so it begins:
Tonight's installment: GM, Chrysler, and the role of the executive. Broader theme: the economy.
If a business is so large that, by its failing, its nation shall follow it into depression--if a business (say Ford, GM, or Chrysler) is that important to the survival of our nation, then the appropriate action is to nationalize it. The company's fate is then in the hands of the nation instead of the other way 'round. The company receives the financial backing of the nation in return, and everything is hunky-dory.
"But, Swift," my Republican comrades shall say, "that sounds an awful lot like socialism!" And it is. But socialism is not evil. It is not a voodoo system designed to destroy everything you love about America. What the Democratic party suggests, and what I firmly believe, is that nationalizing certain industries will result in massive and tangible benefits for the majority of citizens. More on that in my upcoming rant on healthcare.
Back to GM and Chrysler. President Obama has offered money to GM and Chrysler to encourage them to develop the next generation of clean automobiles. He has set a deadline, and has hinted that this may well be the last government money that either company sees if they do not put it to proper use. Cue the lash of public outcry--"Two months in office and he thinks he can run the auto industry," "impeach this asshole," "He hasn't the constitutional right to do this--" I have seen a great many of these, each with self-righteous fury that ranged from the simply misguided to the unapologetically racist. The president has the authority to offer them this money, just as he has the authority to withhold it to achieve his aims.
I would like to pose one final question to my Republican fellows--and I acknowledge that despite our differing doctrines, they are patriots, all of them: if it is not the role of the government to use the sum of its mortal forces to attempt to repair a fractured economy, and if it is not the role of the government to make its citizens an ironclad guarantee of care when they are sick or injured, and if it is not the role of the government to tax the wealthy more than the poor, than tell me--what is the role of the federal government? If you believe that it is only to enforce the law, in the strictest sense, then you have a viewpoint Hobbes would be proud of. Tune in next Monday for my healthcare rant.
Citations: Quotes on Obama's actions were paraphrased from comments here: http://buzz.yahoo.com/...