Weighing up plebisictory democracy

How is Barack Obama, America's King Solomon elect, going to make a decision on whether he should save or whether he should kill the American car industry?

This past week, mainstream American media has transformed itself into a debating chamber between the pro and anti Detroit lobbies. On Sunday's Meet the Press, we first heard a passionate exchange between Senators Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Carl Levin (D-MI) on the long-term pros and cons of letting the American automobile industry die and then some valuably calibrated perspectives on this incredibly complex issue from Texan oil and wind man T Boone Pickens, Thomas Hot Flat and Crowded Friedman and Katty Kay, the BBC's Washington correspondent. The grown-up newspapers are also full of this debate. In this morning's New York Times, for example, Mitt Romney wants something he euphemistically calls a managed bankruptcy; while in this morning's Wall Street Journal, Rick Waggoner, the CEO of GM, explains Why GM Deserves Support.

It's going to a really hard decision for Obama -- almost as tricky and controversial, I fear, as figuring out whether Hillary should be the next Secretary of State. So rather than listening to elites (who, some might say, got us into this confusing mess in the first place), maybe Obama should disintermediate these mainstream media notables and go onto the Internet where he can hear the judgment of the ordinary people, that wise crowd who elected him to office in the first place. He could go, for example, to YouTube, where a group called GMBlogs ( in truth: General Motor's home for corporate blogs) put out a four minute video entitled "The US auto industry and the Ripple Effect" which argues in favor of saving Detroit. This video has been watched over 209,000 times and has generated over 1,500 mainly negative comments from viewers including such thoughtful insights into Detroit's seemingly terminal decline as:

-- SHOULDA WOKE UP A LONG TIME AGO
-- FUCK UAW!!
-- FUCK EM ALL!!

I'm not sure about the real ripple effect of bankrupting the US auto industry, but I am pretty certain of the ripple effect of plebiscitory digital democracy on the long-term health of America's economy and society. I just hope that Obama watches curated shows like Meet the Press and reads edited newspapers like The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal rather than relying on unmediated YouTube commentary. The future of the American automobile industry, I'm afraid, is too important to be determined by the will of the crowd.

Comments

[Stephen Smoliar]

Andrew, if you have not yet seen the film CITIZEN VERDICT, I strongly recommend it for further support of your argument:

http://therehearsalstudio.blogspot.com/2008/11/justice-defied.html

In spite of its many flaws, it still provides a reflection on "plebisictory justice" worthy of attention. Having invested in that reflection, you can then turn to "plebisictory crisis management," beginning with the economic crisis!

[Jason]

One need look no further to the hypocrisy of the "wisdom of the crowd" and plebisictory democracy as the passage of Proposition 8 in California and similar proposals in Arizona and Florida.

[Vince Williams]

John Dingell's loss of the chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee to Henry Waxman eliminates a major roadblock to the passage of higher mandatory automobile fuel efficiency standards.

These are baby steps to responsible supervision of the old marauders who have laid waste to the public commons of the American people for so long.

Dingell's record in the House as liberal US Representative from Michigan is distinguished, but in spite of his effective advocacy for the environment (among many other virtues), he has always been a fierce defender of Detroit's auto industry, of course.

But now we hear a mewling cry from that grumbling apologist for corporate miscreants, the Wall Street Journal, loyal codependent and enabler of their addictions, in this thought balloon plaudit:

"He... has always tried to protect his hometown Detroit auto makers from the eco-mandates that ultimately helped to land them in their present predicament."

It reads like satire from the comic poets of eco-Parnassus, but alas, it's meant literally.

The arrogance.

I had a Ciceronian moment in my head when the auto industry triumvirate sent a Rolex-clad embassy to Capitol Hill (by private jet) to defend colossal corporate misfeasance and beg a taxpayer handout with apocalyptic threats of ruin and devastation on an Alexandrian scale unless they are appeased.

With apologies to Cicero, I hope the moral bankrupts and dishonest free-market fanatics at the WSJ and their Plutocrat masters meet their Judgement Day in Hades sooner rather than later.