You know your level of confidence in the government has reached the point of lunacy when you can in sincerity propose such an obviously terrible, horrible, worthless idea as this:

“That’s why the Obama administration — while it still holds the keys to the big automakers — ought to put some style fascists into the mix: the genius of Marc Newson … Steve Jobs and Jonny Ive from Apple … Frank Gehry, the architect, and Jeff Koons, the artist. Put the great industrial designers in the front seat, right along with sound financial stewardship … the greener, the cleaner, the meaner on fossil fuels, the sexier for me. Check out the Tesla or the Fisker Karma car, designed by the same team that gave the world the Aston Martin.”

No, it’s not master of terrible ideas Tom Friedman, but Bono, writing an unsurprisingly awful op-ed I did not have the stomach to finish.  He actually had the audacity to write that very paragraph appealing for the government to become even more involved in the automotive industry on the same page where he said this about why today’s cars are family sedans are poorly designed:

“It hurts me to say this about democracy (and I know because my band is one), but rarely does majority rule produce something of beauty.”

I can’t imagine it hurt him as much to say it as it hurts me to read it. The cognitive dissonance it takes to write that democracy does not produce beautiful cars and then several sentences later appeal for the government to become more involved in the automotive design process is, quite frankly, astounding. This kind of idiocy is exactly why people fretted about government takeover of the G.M. and Chevy; individuals with too much confidence in the government are more than happy to see companies forced by regulation, mandate, or other policies to produce goods that appeal more to their personal aesthetics and preferences, green or otherwise.

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