It used to be said that "as goes General Motors, so goes the nation." And, in fact, a year and a half ago, GM was in bankruptcy and our nation was in the depths of the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. So for a feel-good story, it's hard to top what's happened since: Federal investment helped get General Motors back on its feet and return to profitability, and GM has come out with a game-changing new car, the plug-in hybrid electric Chevy Volt. Motor Trend magazine named the Volt its 2011 "Car of the Year." GM is investing $163 million in three plants (including its flagship plant in Flint, Michigan) to help produce the car and is hiring 1,000 engineers to develop the Volt and other electric vehicles that will cut America's dependence on oil.
Who wouldn't be happy to witness the comeback of a major American industry and a down payment on American energy independence, especially in a way that produces new jobs? Conservative columnist George Will for one: He saw it as an example of "meretricious accounting and deceptive marketing . . . . foist[ing] state capitalism on an appalled country."
Radio host Rush Limbaugh derided the Volt as "Obama's new car," and labeled it part of the electric car industry's "century-long history of failure."
What other innovative technology can be turned into a political punching bag? There's high-speed rail -- which Ohio governor-elect John Kasich called "one of the dumbest ideas" he's ever heard -- although it's wildly popular in Japan, much of western Europe, Mexico, China, and beyond. How about wind power? Tennessee senator Lamar Alexander derided "Cape Wind," the nation's first offshore wind farm recently okayed to be built off the coast of Massachusetts, as a "taxpayer ripoff," although wind is the fastest-growing energy source in the country.
But even as those pundits and politicians bend over backward to bash American ingenuity, at least some leaders are embracing the can-do attitude that will lead to a new prosperity. Unfortunately, many of them are in China.
"We will accelerate the development of a low-carbon economy and green economy so as to gain an advantageous position in the international industrial competition," Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said in a speech to the World Economic Forum last year. "We will make China a country of innovation."
In fact, China has announced it will invest $17 billion in fuel economy, hybrids, plug-in hybrids, electric, and fuel-cell vehicles. It already has the world's most advanced high-speed rail.
Not so long ago, innovation and industrial know-how were a source of bipartisan pride, an All-American value. Then Barack Obama made clean-energy jobs and technology centerpieces of his new administration and all of a sudden a swathe of the Republican Party decided that saving energy and supporting growing American industries were indications of incipient socialism.
Fortunately, not all conservatives buy this u-turn away from support of new technology and job growth. At a November House subcommittee hearing on climate change, Representative Bob Inglis, who was defeated by a Tea Party opponent, mocked "my free enterprise colleagues -- especially conservatives" for their abrupt assertion that clean technology is "hooey." The Chinese don't see it that way, he said. "And they plan on eating our lunch in this next century."
Time for some common sense: Building the cars of the future and replacing dirty energy sources with solar and wind will rebuild America's manufacturing base and improve our economic competitiveness. Clean energy will not only cut air and water pollution but also help us to stabilize our climate. And achieving energy independence is both patriotic and principled -- and should be bipartisan once again.
If instead we listen to those who'd prefer that we shoot ourselves in the foot today, then we can't complain if China and the rest of the world leave us behind tomorrow.