Ford Motor Company, apparently under pressure from the White House, has pulled ads trumpeting the fact that it didn't take any of the bailout cash offered by the federal government a few years back. The idea of an American corporation sniping at intervention in the economy by the Washington SSR doesn't set well with the current ruling Politboro.
Never mind the pointing fingers which insist that, under different conditions Ford would have taken the money themselves. Never mind either that Ford supported the bailouts before Congress and did indeed take a line of credit from Obamacorp. The most important fact which can be gleaned from this situation is that the Obama Administration doesn't mind suppressing freedom of speech when it may affect their reelection chances in 2012.
While it would be hard to not call Ford somewhat hypocritical considering the background, there comes a point when the bottom line is what really matters. And the bottom line here is that Ford didn't lap up funds from the taxpayers' trough to the degree that GM and Chrysler did. But when it tries to make, ahem, capital of that fact, its rivals and their big government beneficiaries cry foul.
Is it more hypocritical to support something and then back off after better thought, or to claim that you are for the American people yet attempt to restrain their freedom of speech when you find it a political liability? Because like it or not, companies have rights too, including saying what they want so long as it isn't libel. In not taken federal funds to quite the same degree as its competitors, Ford is a better friend than they. Because, isn't it the American Way to make it yourself rather than cry about circumstance?
It seems the new American Way is socialism. At least, we hope only until January 2013.
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