Watching the Ford Motor Company go about its business is at once comedy and tragedy.

Of course, such shouldn’t be surprising from a company started by a man who both revolutionized the concept of middle-class in the U.S., while at the same time funding magazines like The Dearborn Independent, which had a propensity for publishing articles like “The International Jew, the World’s Foremost Problem.”

Nowadays, when a sleeve of golf balls will run you well more than Ford stock, the penchant for maintaining a dual identity continues.

According to the Detroit Free Press, as part of its “Way Forward” program (Translation: Countdown to Becoming a Honda Subsidiary Program), Ford has all but abandoned its sponsorship of golf in order to focus on the manly pursuits of bull-riding and NASCAR.

Basically, golfers are too fey for a Ford truck, so they want to focus their marketing on bull-riding race-car drivers. Those are truck buyers. The trucks you see in the parking lot of your favorite golf course? Lets just call those a statistical anomaly.

Then add to that Ford’s flip-flopping over placing advertisements in gay magazines, as activists from both sides of the issue seem to sway Ford every time they speak. Currently, the American Family Association is launching a boycott, which likely means Ford will immediately change its stance again, in keeping with its theory of “Don’t have your own morals and ethics, adopt those of fringe groups.”

More than anything, of course, it really comes down to the fact that in a time when they desperately need to produce a good product, they can’t. And now the marketing people are scrambling around like idiots, hurling Hail Mary passes throughout the media and praying for miracles.

Golf is currently proving it doesn’t much need Ford, as other companies quickly jump into sponsorship roles and other automobile companies maintain the accurate theory that marketing to golfers is a good idea.

For Ford, however, survival appears unlikely. Sadly, we will likely be watching the death throes of this once-great company for some time.

–WKW