Buy American: You Can't Kill It With A Shtick

On Sunday, GM CEO Fritz Henderson went out of his way to avoid waving the American flag in his desperate attempt to sell the idea that his employer had a future building and selling cars in the US market. Well, duh. Ford, GM and Chrysler are not exactly in the best position to go all protectionist, given the huge number of parts and vehicles the ailing American automakers imports from abroad, discounting (and how) the vehicles they want to keep selling abroad. But The Detroit News boldly goes where Rick Wagoner’s clone fears to tread. All columnist Marney Rich Keenan’s “Buying American cars: It’s finally catching on” needs is an exclamation mark. [And an accompanying image that’s not a photochop.] Say it ain’t so, Joe! In this case, “Joe” is Keenan’s culture-loving brother, makes the connection between purchasing American cars and GM’s support for the arts. Which will no doubt be toast as the Presidential Task Force on Autos gets stuck in. Anyway, here come the usual suspects . . .

Dr. Bruce Garretson, an ophthalmologist with offices in Royal Oak and Rochester, has bought BMWs for almost two decades. This will be the first year he will buy an American-made vehicle. “Although I prefer the way a BMW drives,” the father of two college-age sons says. “I believe that supporting Detroit is more important than my personal taste given our current economic condition.”

To her credit, Keenan found this guy. And, as a highly trained professional journalist writing for a major city newspaper, she realizes that one Bimmer defector does not a trend make (despite the headline). So, naturally, Keenan turns to the organic food business for something that almost approaches factual information.

Reflecting a similar trend, a statistic has been making the e-mail rounds lately that has galvanized consumers to buy local. According to the Michigan Department of Agriculture, the projection is: “If every household started spending just $10 per week of their current grocery budget on locally grown foods, we’d keep more than $37 million each week circulating within Michigan’s economy.”

OK? Ready to connect the dots? If only Keenan shared your preparedness—and dumped her prejudice. And lost her ignorance.

Who knows? One visit to the site [ buymichiganproducts.com] and you might be eating Kellogg’s brand cereal from Battle Creek and Jiffy Mix muffins from Chelsea for breakfast, Koegel’s deli meats from Flint for lunch and Romano’s pasta sauce from Shelby Township for dinner with a glass of Merlot from St. Julian in Paw Paw or a glass of milk from Guernsey Farms in Northville.

Now, if we could just get the members of President Obama’s auto task force to dump their personally owned foreign-made vehicles. In February, Detroit News Washington Bureau Chief David Shepardson reported only two of the eighteen policymakers own American-made vehicles. Unfortunately, that track record is no laughing matter at all.

Hey, Keenan. Take it from those of us actually following this story, a little laughter is no bad thing.