John in Oregon,
Humorist P.J. O’Rourke’s latest effort in the Wall Street Journal satirizes that “The fate of Detroit isn’t a matter of economics. It’s a tragic romance, whose magic was killed by bureaucrats, bad taste and busybodies.”
With a razor sharp keyboard O’Rourke drills down to the heart of the problem saying;
“We became sick and tired of our cars and even angry at them. Pointy-headed busybodies of the environmentalist, new urbanist, utopian communitarian ilk blamed the victim. They claimed the car had forced us to live in widely scattered settlements in the great wasteland of big-box stores and the Olive Garden.”
O’Rourke then, with the instinct for what’s important about a story, takes a swipe at the grab a Schwinn, hop a trolley, cozy gulag of Portland, Oregon. Later in a moment of reflection;
“I don’t believe the pointy-heads give a damn about climate change or gas mileage, much less about whether I survive a head-on with one of their tax-sucking mass-transit projects. All they want to is to make me hate my car.”
And then comes the money line;
“But cars didn’t shape our existence; cars let us escape with our lives. We’re way the heck out here in Valley Bottom Heights and Trout Antler Estates because we were at war with the cities.”
P.J.’s piece is a hilarious take on the demise of the American car. Read the whole thing.
