Target Practice

by digby


As we know, there is nothing that upsets the wingnuts more than the government bailing out the auto companies. It's a socialistic, fascistic takeover of the economy and signals the end of the American way of life as we know it. The proper course is for the companies to go bankrupt (and break that union that has ruined everything for everyone.)

However, when an auto company is allowed to go bankrupt and is forced to close many of its dealerships (also known as small businesses) they scream like stuck pigs, claiming that the administration is forcing the poor company to divest itself of jobs against its will and targeting Republicans to boot. (It's ok to fire the people who make the cars, you see, but firing people who sell them is a betrayal of capitalism.)

Anyway, the facts are just a little bit less scandalous than the wingnuts will admit. They looked at the list of auto dealers being shut and determined that most of them were Republican donors. And that could only mean that Republicans were being targeted to the advantage of Democratic donors. But FiveThirtyEight looked at the donor lists and found out that 88% of car dealers are Republicans. So unless the company targets Democrats very specifically, it's pretty much shooting fish in a barrel that more Republicans will lose their franchises.

I guess they assume that all politicians are as crude and corrupt as Karl Rove and Dick Cheney when they operated the Department of Justice like a cheap partisan whore house. But I actually think the Obama administration has a few bigger things on its mind than punishing used car dealers for being Republican. They've got their hands full trying to clean up the epic pile of garbage that was left behind after Bush's eight year long frat party.


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