PBS Airs Eulogy for the SUV

RUSH: A little See, I Told You So, ladies and gentlemen. It was back in 1996 when the Sierra Club first began its assault on the SUV in an attempt to eliminate the SUV from your choice of vehicles to purchase, demonize the SUV over the years. I warned you at the outset, they’re coming after your car. They don’t want you driving it, for whatever reason. You pooh-poohed me, many of you did, not all, some of you were loyal. Many of you pooh-poohed me saying I was overreacting. I know these people, and so last night on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, an essayist by the name of Anne Taylor Fleming gave us almost a eulogy for the SUV.

FLEMING: In lots like this outside of my local Whole Foods, it used to be impossible to squeeze by or in between the Escalades and Navigators. They were America writ large and thirsty. Even the horror of September 11 didn’t get us really talking about energy independence from the oil-rich countries that are not exactly friendly. So it is easy to be cynical or cautious or some such thing. And yet there are signs that the shift is genuine and that there will be no going back. To see these lots now and see all these unsold giants is to feel already as if you are wandering in a kind of automotive theme park, a museum, almost, a snapshot of entitled times past that will not come again, not in the same way, anyway. The SUV is about to become a thing of the past, a swaggery relic of days gone by.

RUSH: Can’t wait ’til this woman is proven wrong. I just cannot wait ’til she is proven wrong. So now all these auto dealerships and SUVs, a museum, a theme park, a snapshot of entitled times past that will not come again, not in the same way, anyway. To see these lots is to be happy, if you are a liberal, to see these SUVs sitting idly is to be happy. And so, once again, the overall theme of the eulogy here on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is America in a constant state of decline. Their idea of entitlement is when you go out and buy what you want. Our idea of entitlement is when they seek to make you and as many other people dependent as possible on them. They look at entitlement as you having the independence and liberty from them to go buy what you want, and they don’t like that kind of entitlement, they love the other kind of entitlement. I told you this was going to happen, I warned you people. So America is in a permanent state of decline, thank you, she says. She’s happy about this. It’s been a long 12 years, but we finally got rid of the SUV.