What happened?

When I was a kid - never a good start to a story, so please bear with me - Chevy was "the heartbeat of America," for Chrissake.  On Wednesday, April Fool's Day, the 1991 Chevy S-10 that sits in my family's driveway will celebrate its 18th birthday. It was my first new car - my second was the Toyota Yaris three-door hatchback I bought last year. My family was firmly middle class, yet after an ill-conceived experiment with a '79 Jeep Cherokee (3 on the floor!) my folks bought me a practical new car.

It was and remains an S-10, one of the most useful cars Chevy ever produced, a maroon and chrome object of practicality that remains the vision of carmakers today, even though the template was laid down two decades ago. The S-10 was so economical, practical and drivable the Chevrolet did what any sensible company drenched in union debt would do: it quit producing the S-10 years ago, replacing it with the Colorado, a vehicle that used the same frame and drivetrain while cost almost twice as much. 

Who can't believe in change like that? The S-10, the one that I used from years 16 to 24, has about 130,000 miles on it. Like a metaphor for GM, the S-10 was so reliable and successful that the company quit making it, having a need to clear room for vehicles like the Pontiac Aztec, arguably the ugliest car ever designed by anyone ... ever.  

The S-10 - my S-10 - does not look as good as it did on 4/1/91 when my parents surprised me with it, but it still runs well and now functions as the ferry that connects my father and his Golden Retriever named Scout to Lake Arbuckle.  I had two accidents in it when I was a teenager, but it never had and still has not had mechanical problems. Since it's the vogue, it should be noted it gets between 20 and 25 on the gas thing. 

The Dear Leader, Constitutionally our Commander in Chief and Chief Executive of the, um, Executive Branch, fired the CEO of General Motors Sunday, a company that legendarily was noted (by an executive) as being so important that "what is good for GM is good for the country." Now, it's flipped: what is good for the country is good for GM.  So goes the caveats of bailout money.

The Ford family, which has ruined the already terrible Detroit Lions franchise, should be thanked for avoiding State influence, though the State will no doubt ensure that Ford get its money eventually.  Anyway, The Dear Leader, following in the well-documented, perverted footsteps of former NY-AG Elliot Spitzer, decided he knows better how to run a company than people who have, um, actual experience in business.

So Rick Wagoner, CEO/Cuckold of GM, resigned. I'm not a GM shareholder and would have no problem with Canada annexing Michigan, but still - when did the POTUS get the right to run publicly-held and -traded businesses? I can't wait to see which Dem seat-filler will take Rick's place - there must be some moldy denizen of Clinton Nation that is not dead, jailed or jobless that can pick up the pieces who The Dear Leader has not yet fingered.

I'm sure Mandy Gurnwald, James Carville and Paul Begala would fight to the death to run an company that's already been run into the ground farther into the ground. Apologies, when waxing Clintonian, fingering people probably is not the best way to phrase; ergo, I'm sure there's some human associated with the Clinton farm team who is not dead, jailed or jobless who fetishizes over some taxpayer-funded skull-effery that wants to try their shot at GM.   Wow, this is Change I Too Can Believe In. 

I eagerly anticipate the forced sales of the Chevy Volt upon a change-drunk populace.

Yeah, eagerly.