"As GM goes, so goes the nation."

Those words from the era of capitalist glory in the post-war boom are a little scary these days. General Motors is expected to file for bankruptcy protection on Monday. Can the nation be far behind?

GM is a reminder of what American manufacturing used to be in the same sense that America is a reminder of what venture capitalism used to be -yes, it was a dog-eat-dog world, but if you were the top dog, it meant you had prevailed against the best competition and had earned your success.

What can we say today? That if you prevailed, it was because you were big and dumb and the government bailed you out?

Indeed, it's become a standard joke now to refer to GM as Government Motors because under the bankruptcy proposal, the U.S. Treasury - GM's largest debtholder - will emerge as the owner of 72.5 percent of the new company's shares.

And that's not socialism because…? Oh, wait, it's because we are told it is not socialism. Instead, the Ministry of Truth has informed us that we are to refer to the government takeover of private business (whether in banking or manufacturing) as a bailout. But remember, the Ministry of Truth also told us that "Freedom is slavery," "War is peace," and "Ignorance is strength," so maybe when they tell us that "Socialism is capitalism," we should take a deep breath and run like hell.

Oh wait, now I'm mixing "Truth" and fiction. The Ministry of Truth is an invention of George Orwell in "1984," and there is no way that a novel could possibly compare to the scope of deception under way now as the American people are lulled into sacrificing their traditions, their principles and their way of life for a mess of pottage (oops, I mean a handful of stimulus money).

Of course, some people just believe whatever they are told. That is helpful to the government. What is even more convenient for the government is that these same people have incredibly short memories. If they are told contradictory things in succeeding years, they don't usually notice. As a teeny example, remember that when the federal government sank billions of dollars into Chrysler and GM, the stated purpose was to keep them from the shame of bankruptcy? But who forced Chrysler and GM into bankruptcy a few months later? Yet no one says anything about it. The federal government can do whatever it wants.

Witness the remarkable admission by President Barack Obama in a C-SPAN interview last weekend that "We are out of money." You would think that would terrify people. Shouldn't the news that the government is essentially bankrupt scare people? Yet President Obama blithely spun his admission into a call to spend more money on health care because that is a "long-term problem" whereas debt is a 'short-term problem." So the solution to being out of money, we are told, is to spend more money. "Debt is wealth."

That is remarkably similar to the wacky thinking of people who were already in debt on their credit cards, but decided to buy honkin' big houses and trucks because, well, housing and transportation are "long-term problems' whereas debt is just an itty-bitty 'short-term problem." At least, it is if the government is willing to bail you out by printing more paper money and borrowing more of their own money back from China.

As GM goes, so goes the nation? Think about it, folks.

n Frank Miele is managing editor of the Daily Inter Lake. E-mail responses may be sent to edit@dailyinterlake.com