Curbside Classic tends to avoid political debates in the comment threads for good reason. As a case in point, a reposting of Brock Yates’ “Grosse Pointe Myopians” essay drew Robert Atkinson Jr. (2024) to share with the world his political views:
“The insularity cited in the article cuts both ways, though. The bi-coastal elites that demonize automobiles, spend billions of our tax dollars on railroads and subway systems, that don’t even want to leave the house since they discovered telecommuting, are every bit as isolated and insulated as the Detroit auto executive. In many ways, each side views the other not as fellow citizens of the same country, but as an alien invader to be destroyed. It explains the great political divide that our current president, Joe Biden, and our former President, Donald Trump, represent. The MAGA Republican conservative reactionaries, versus the Godless, Communist radicals, led by the Obama wing of the Democratic Party. Neither side is interested in actually listening to the other side, only in demonizing them, while the country’s problems continue not just to fester, but multiply. Meanwhile, the vast middle is slowly being destroyed as the wealthy elites consume even more of our country’s wealth, while the poor are bribed with ever more generous handouts, to ensure their support and their silence. Tell me we’re not on track for the Apocalypse! Please! And make me believe it!”
This is a decent example of the “straw man fallacy.” The typical argument “creates the illusion of having refuted or defeated an opponent’s proposition through the covert replacement of it with a different proposition (i.e., ‘stand up a straw man’) and the subsequent refutation of that false argument (‘knock down a straw man’) instead of the opponent’s proposition” (Wikipedia, 2024). Atkinson works himself into a lather by creating at least three straw men:
- “The bi-coastal elites that demonize automobiles.”
- “Godless, Communist radicals, led by the Obama wing of the Democratic Party.”
- “Neither side is interested in actually listening to the other side, only in demonizing them.”
I would argue that none of those statements are factually accurate.
Atkinson’s straw men distract us from problem solving
To Atkinson’s first point, even though the West Coast states of California, Oregon and Washington have tended to elect Democrats in recent years, it would be political suicide for a state-level politician to “demonize automobiles.” These are large states with substantial rural populations as well as vast suburbs that are heavily dependent on the automobile. The policy focus has been on reducing that dependency by bolstering the availability of other types of transportation.
Where Atkinson really goes off the rails is by branding the “Obama wing” of the Democratic party as “Godless, Communist radicals.” That’s such a hackneyed partisan smear that I wondered whether he was being sarcastic. But if he was, that undercuts his third straw man, where Atkinson insists that political polarization is too intense to solve the nation’s problems.
Also see ‘Gallup finds attitudes toward EVs vary sharply by party and age’
If that is true then how did major federal legislation on infrastructure and microchips recently get approved with bipartisan support? And why did Biden reappoint Jerome Powell as Federal Reserve chair even though he had originally been picked by former Republican President Donald Trump?
I don’t say all this to dismiss the idea that polarization has reached dangerous levels. It has. But if we are going to fix the problem then we need a more factually grounded analysis than what Atkinson has brought to the table. He has a strikingly limited sense of what is actually happening in the political realm.
That’s understandable. One of the biggest problems with the American automotive media is that it can be insular. Policy discussions tend to receive only parenthetical attention even by major outlets such as Automotive News, which would much rather talk about the latest model introductions. And while car-buff magazines have gotten more journalistically balanced than back in Brock Yates’ era, a “Mommy, don’t mess with my toys” mentality can still leak through.
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RE:SOURCES
- Atkinson, Robert Jr.; 2024. Commentator in “Vintage Article: The Grosse Pointe Myopians – Car and Driver’s Brock Yates Nails Motown.” Curbside Classic. Posted April 14 at 1:54 p.m.
- Wikipedia; 2024. “Straw man.” Page last edited March 28.
A regular Indie Auto commentator posted a comment that he subsequently withdrew because it “could be construed as overly political.” I have followed his wishes but thought that this was a good time to reiterate: I’m fine with political discussions if they are fact-based, civil and on topic. I thought that the withdrawn comment met that criteria.
On the other hand, if Atkinson had tried to post his comment here I wouldn’t have approved it, although I might have posted it as a letter to the editor and in a comment pointed out why I thought it was a poorly constructed argument.