Does the foot soldier carrying out a raid in some far flung corner of the globe understand (or care) about how his actions fit into a greater strategic whole?

Does the foot soldier carrying out a raid in some far flung corner of the globe understand (or care) about how his actions fit into a greater strategic whole? You're conflating tactical level action (some guy you don't like coming to your small company and demanding a different lug-nut while high-fiving the union rep) versus big picture strategic objectives. Which is weird because in other parts of your post you are grappling with big picture impacts -- cars got big. But then you're going down to "some of these a-holes I had to deal with didn't care about emissions! So this whole thing all the way up to Obama himself was never about emissions!" There are plenty of studies that show that the auto regulations did in fact reduce emissions substantially. You're also pointing out that there were other unintended side-effects. Totally valid! And I appreciate your on the ground perspective. But it's just so.... Breitbart to then go off on how this was really Obama progressive liberal control freak stuff and not actually about what the bill did in fact do, which was lower emissions.