Posted by
"Happy" Jake Greene on Tuesday, April 07, 2009 9:41:33 AM
That half a dozen or so of you who actually read my stuff probably don’t believe this, but I can be wrong. Understand that when I say that, I’m not saying you think I’m right all the time, but that you, reasonably, think that I think I’m right all the time. To be honest, I believe I’m wrong more often than people who know me and like me think I am. And I am here to note a particularly pertinent instance where I may have been wrong. But, then, so were many of the people on Townhall.
Last week we had the continuing saga of the Stimulus package and its harsh realities. Most noteworthy was the firing of the CEO of General Motors by President Obama. Now, taken at face value, the idea of the US President having the authority to demand the resignation of any employee of a private company – whether the CEO or the junior receptionist – is horrifying. And a great many people made similar statements, from yours truly to the likes of Ann Coulter and Thomas Sowell.
But, I had a revelation last night. And with that revelation, I must not only disagree with myself, but with Ms. Coulter and Dr. Sowell. As it turns out, I would say that President Obama was in his rights to demand the resignation of GM’s CEO, who had an obligation to consider that demand and react accordingly. Now, before you start looking for me at happyjake.moveon.org, I do have a perfectly logical, and reasonably conservative, explanation for what, on its face, is a very leftist opinion.
Over the last several years we’ve heard about universities (particularly Harvard Law School) whine about having to accept military recruiters at university job fairs. The reason is that those universities accepted federal funds, and as a condition of accepting federal funds, you must, for example, accept federal recruiters who might not be of the same political bent as you on, say, Tolerance and Diversity. If you don’t want to host military recruiters, people said, don’t accept federal funds. Conversely, if you want federal funds, you have to host military recruiters.
To me, this situation is no different. The federal government supplied funding to GM. As a condition (or a result) of receiving that funding, GM’s CEO was forced to resign by President Obama. If GM’s CEO wanted to stay around, he should not have accepted the federal money.
You see, it’s not that President Obama fired the CEO of a private firm that should bug us, it’s that the private firm allowed themselves to be put in that position by accepting your money to patch up problems that they created. President Obama has actually done the conservative movement a favor by showing the inevitable result of making a deal with the Devil. The Devil always gets what he wants.
If you don’t want Congress or the President coming to your corporate office and making organizational changes, don’t accept federal funds. If you do take the quick and easy path, just remember to get a receipt when you check your soul at the door.