Ameri-car, the Beautiful

At this eleventh hour of Chapter 11,
I remembered this bit of something
I had written in December of 2005.

Not intimating any kind of untoward prescience.
Just thought I'd share:

"So let's say the country were a car;
democracy would be the chassis or, what do you call it, the body?
Anyway, the exterior.
And capitalism is the engine -- what runs it.
So -- I'm afraid we're getting to the point
(and some would say, I'm sure, we're there already)
where we've got this very powerful, even souped up, engine
running a car which clearly shows signs of some reckless driving --
dinged up, dented and a little wrecked; certainly seen better days.
What concerns me, what with all the effort and attention spent
maintaining and improving the power under the hood,
is that one day comes time to find a less road-weary vehicle
for that snappy engine to run and transport,
leaving behind what will be an empty shell --
obsolete, discarded and going nowhere..."

Clearly I've only taken this metaphor for a test drive.

And so much for that "snappy" engine.
I'm afraid a few chipmunks may have been
hoarding their nuts under the hood as well.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081211/ap_on_fe_st/odd_nut_repository