Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

No More Hummer Nation
New York Times ^ | 3/31/09 | Maureen Dowd

Posted on 04/01/2009 7:34:58 AM PDT by steve-b

You know you're in trouble when Old Europe chastises you for being too socialist. But, hey, nobody's perfect — except maybe Michelle Obama, who landed in London with a huge Obama entourage, wearing a daffodil yellow dress and looking like a confident ray of U.S.A. sunshine.

As President Obama renegotiates the terms of American leadership this week in Europe, those of us left at home struggle to get over our affluenza. That condition, the bane of the middle class, is defined in a book of the same name as "a painful, contagious, socially transmitted condition of overload, debt, anxiety and waste resulting from the dogged pursuit of more."...

I heard a French scientist on a radio show once explain that Americans would always insist on supersizing things because our "reptilian brain" likes things big. We're still big, as Norma Desmond said. It's everything around us that's collapsing and shrinking....

That's the big nettle we're grasping. How big do we need to be to still feel American? How big can our national debt grow? How big can our cars be? And how big is our clout abroad these days? Will Michelle's style in Europe make as big a splash as Carla Bruni-Sarkozy's?

The cowboy push by W. and Dick Cheney to be a hyperpower and an empire left America a weakened and tapped-out power, straining to defend its runaway capitalism even as it uneasily adapts to its desperation socialism.

How do we come to terms with the gluttony that exploded our economy and still retain our reptilian American desire for living large? How do we make the pursuit of the American dream a satisfying quest rather than a selfish one?...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; US: Michigan
KEYWORDS: anticapitalist; automakers; communism; generalmotors; hummer; reddupe; starkravingsocialism; suv; usefulidiot
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061 next last

1 posted on 04/01/2009 7:34:58 AM PDT by steve-b
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: steve-b

There are rules...


2 posted on 04/01/2009 7:36:32 AM PDT by JRios1968 (The real first rule of Fight Club: Do not invite Chuck Norris...EVER)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steve-b

3 posted on 04/01/2009 7:37:34 AM PDT by JRios1968 (The real first rule of Fight Club: Do not invite Chuck Norris...EVER)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steve-b

4 posted on 04/01/2009 7:38:15 AM PDT by JRios1968 (The real first rule of Fight Club: Do not invite Chuck Norris...EVER)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steve-b

Michelle is perfect all right. A perfect POS who can now sort of like our country.


5 posted on 04/01/2009 7:39:37 AM PDT by Piquaboy (22 year military veteran of Navy, Air Force, and Army.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steve-b
$40,000 Hummers - out

$2,000 Tata Nanos - In


6 posted on 04/01/2009 7:39:40 AM PDT by OB1kNOb (Communist China is doing more to foster capitalism in their country than our politicians are doing.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: JRios1968

I love the Maureen Dowd rule.


7 posted on 04/01/2009 7:40:02 AM PDT by mnehring
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: JRios1968

8 posted on 04/01/2009 7:40:38 AM PDT by reagan_fanatic (FOBO)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: mnehring

OK, where’s the pic?


9 posted on 04/01/2009 7:41:31 AM PDT by null and void (We are now in day 72 of our national holiday from reality.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: OB1kNOb

Death Trap.


10 posted on 04/01/2009 7:41:50 AM PDT by jersey117
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: steve-b

Simply put...How BIG can the OPPRESSION of FREEDOM get?


11 posted on 04/01/2009 7:42:50 AM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OB1kNOb
My legs are too long for that midget car.
12 posted on 04/01/2009 7:43:02 AM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: mnehring

13 posted on 04/01/2009 7:43:33 AM PDT by Travis T. OJustice (Want to make a conservative angry? Lie to him. Want to make a liberal angry? Tell him the truth)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: steve-b

Maureen Dowd and Hummers.....

Nahhhhhh, not gonna touch that one


14 posted on 04/01/2009 7:44:09 AM PDT by misterrob (FUBO----Just say it, Foooooooooooooo Boooooooowwwwww. Smooth)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: steve-b
“I thought it was absolutely bizarre,” said Maryann Keller, an independent automotive analyst, adding that “it was aimed at people who didn’t know what to do with the money they had. It was discretionary spending by males who clearly had other cars in their garages.”

Sexist pig. " According to Dayna Hart, manager of Hummer Communications in Detroit, about 40 percent of the buyers of the mid-size H3s are women..."


15 posted on 04/01/2009 7:44:30 AM PDT by Nick Danger (This post is made of 100% recycled electrons)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mnehring
"I love the Maureen Dowd rule."

It's the only reason that I read these threads.

16 posted on 04/01/2009 7:44:48 AM PDT by Eagles6 ( Typical White Guy: Christian, Constitutionalist, Heterosexual, Redneck. (Let them eat arugula!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: null and void

17 posted on 04/01/2009 7:44:52 AM PDT by Travis T. OJustice (Want to make a conservative angry? Lie to him. Want to make a liberal angry? Tell him the truth)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 9 | View Replies]

To: steve-b; abb

I wait for the days when the Slimes and this pos posing as an oped writer swirl down into the liberal cesspool.


18 posted on 04/01/2009 7:45:02 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Does Zer0 have any friends, who are not criminals, foreign/domestic terrorists, or tax cheats?)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: OB1kNOb

Somebody’s been posting a lot of pictures of $2000 Tatas...


19 posted on 04/01/2009 7:46:10 AM PDT by BikerJoe
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Eagles6

20 posted on 04/01/2009 7:46:43 AM PDT by Travis T. OJustice (Want to make a conservative angry? Lie to him. Want to make a liberal angry? Tell him the truth)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-6061 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson