Holy merde! Fasten your seat belts!!! [View all]

Opinion: Drive the all-new Toyota Paranoia, Official Car of the Jan. 6 Insurrection

Opinion by
Dana Milbank
Columnist
July 6, 2021 at 4:19 p.m. PDT

Oh, what a feeling! (And it isn’t a good one.)
Approaching Tuesday’s six-month anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, the liberal watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington tallied contributions corporate PACs have made to the 147 insurrectionists in Congress — those who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 election, even after the Trump mob’s deadly attack on the Capitol.

Most corporations stuck to their initial pledges and didn’t give money, at least directly, to those who stood for overthrowing democracy. But one has bankrolled the insurrectionists at a level far higher than the others: Toyota. The carmaker gave $55,000 to 37 of the insurrectionist lawmakers, CREW found — more than quadruple the runner-up, CIGNA (nine), and quintuple Koch Industries (seven).

A Toyota spokesman told me the company “supports candidates based on their position on issues that are important to the auto industry and the company.” Apparently, constitutional democracy isn’t one of those issues. This leaves me with one question: Would anybody like to buy my 2017 Toyota Sienna? I suspect I’m not the only one who won’t be buying a(nother) Toyota. Toyota likes to say its cars are “made in America” — while its actions are unmaking America.

If Toyota’s wishes to solidify its standing as the Official Car of Insurrectionists, I suggest a more comprehensive approach. Toyota should roll out a new line of vehicles, renamed and redesigned to reflect target customers. Those who attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6 should get special Three Percenter financing.
The 2022 Toyota Previous (formerly Prius). Don’t recognize Joe Biden as the legitimate president? Then transport yourself back to a time when America LED THE WORLD in covid-19 deaths and HAD THE GREATEST job losses since Herbert Hoover. Toyota’s hybrid technology will excite those who want it all: more MPGs (miles per gallon) and more MTGs (Marjorie Taylor Greenes).

But wait, there’s more…

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/07/06/drive-all-new-toyota-paranoia-official-car-jan-6-insurrection/