The Suckers of Elkhart
Remember the poor, impovershed former recreational vehicle makers of Elkhart, Indiana? President Obama sure doesn’t. Monday, he promised to help revive the R.V. industry. I figured he was full of beans and wrote:
What’s worse for the poor people of Elkhart is that, even if there is a line of people ready to buy RVs, it’s likely his stimulus plan is going to drive them away. The Stimulus Bill has hundreds of billions for “green” initiatives designed to move people away from big, gas-guzzling vehicles like RVs. It spends money on “smart growth”, which is just a fancy way of saying that people should be jammed into urban centers instead of spreading out and creating the dreaded “urban sprawl”. You ever tried to park an RV in a city? There’s plenty of cash there for alternative energy but nothing for more oil exploration or drilling.
[Emphasis mine]
He couldn’t even wait a whole day before he proved me right.
The days where we’re just building sprawl forever, those days are over. I think that Republicans, Democrats, everybody recognizes that that’s not a smart way to build communities.
Isn’t it nice of him to tell us what’s not smart? It’s almost like he thinks he knows better about where we want to live than the millions of people who have decided to live in those very communities he says aren’t smart. We’d never elect someone that arrogant to be President, would we?
So the question, when you take these two quotes, made about 24 hours apart, is this: how does jamming people into urban centers allow for a resurgence of the recreational vehicle industry? Well, any halfway intellgent person knows that it doesn’t. It can’t. In fact it does just the opposite.
When you read the words “urban sprawl”, think about the suburbs where your houses are farther apart than a couple of feet and you have more than a postage stamp-sized yard. Think about planned communities that are full of spacious houses instead of cramped apartments or narrow rowhouses. Think about a driveway where you can actualy park a recreational vehicle instead of a narrow street space that would barely fit a mid-sized sedan. Think about the places people are fleeing the cities to live right now. That’s what he’s saying is “over”. There’ll be no more “elbow room” in Obama’s America.
And that’s kind of the point. President Obama isn’t in the White House to listen to what you want. Not really. He’s there to grant wishes and return favors, just like he’s done his entire political career. How could we expect him to do any differently? One of the favors he needs to return is to the radical environmental lobby to whom he is on the hook for millions of dollars in campaign contributions. They hate urban sprawl with the heat of a thousand blazing stars. The idea of human beings living in harmony with nature and living in big houses with lots of land and a motor home is something they can not comprehend. You are a blight on the planet with your big car and your big house and your charcoal grill and your carbon. Now, having paid their money to get their vision of the world put into place, they want the payoff.
It’s a shame that the people of Elkhart didn’t get to hear that part of the President’s recovery plan. They probably wouldn’t have cheered him quite so much if they knew.
(via Instapundit)
Other Posts of Interest:
- It’s a Contradiction Wrapped in a Fog, Inside a President
- The President is Wrong. America Hates His Bill and Wants Tax Cuts Now.
- America Says, “No Stimulus”. President Obama Replies, “Shut Up!”
Category: Oh the Climate, It is A-Changin', President Barack Obama, The Economy and Your Money, The Rise of the Nanny State
