Blue Cars

A lot has been written about what has lead to the apparently inevitable bailout of the Big 3 auto manufacturers. Bad contracts with the UAW, unreliable cars, failure to keep up with "foreign" competitors -- all of these clearly have played a role. But I blame one other factor -- Democrats. No, I don't mean Barney Frank, Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi, although I'm sure I could find a reason to blame them too. I mean the urban and suburban coastal Democrats who have abandoned American-made cars.

In my very blue neck of Northern Virginia, imports far outnumber cars from the the Big 3. I've tried repeatedly to find statistics on this, to no avail. My informal counts of non-commercial vehicles as I'm driving on the Dulles Toll Road during rush hour almost always find imports accounting for 7 or 8 out of every 10 vehicles. If you discounted SUVs, Chrysler minivans and obvious fleet vehicles, it would be around 9 out of 10. On our side of the street in North Arlington, you'd have to go several blocks before you'd find another American car, other than the two Fords in our driveway.

For the past two presidential election cycles, I've made it a point to note American cars with stickers promoting the Democratic presidential ticket (as well as the even more rare -- a car with a "support our troops" magnet along with an Obama or Kerry sticker). I recall having seen only two American-built cars -- a Ford F-150 and a Jeep Liberty (of all blessed things) with an Obama sticker. Of course, those Hope/Change stickers seemed to come as standard equipment on all manner of foreign vehicles -- from Mazda 3's to Honda Odysseys. I've been astounded at how often a McCain/Palin sticker was attached to the rare American car I see on the road.

Don't believe my anecdotal evidence? Here's some proof -- a study that shows 71% of Democrats drive an import and 57% percent of Republicans drive an import. In my area, I think it is even more pronounced. So, maybe rather than sending billions of dollars to the Big 3, we could just have the Obama campaign machine crank out some ads appealing for his supporters to buy American.