By Wayne Dawkins

Most Americans deserve a fair shot in order to make their fair share and in addition make sure everyone plays by the same set of rules. Those were words from President Obama’s State of the Union address, spoken like the maternal grandson of Midwesterners from Kansas.

As the president spoke plainly Tuesday, he reminded me of that elementary lesson about nouns: Person, place or thing, or specifically, Saul Alinsky, Detroit and automobiles, those three things on my mind.

I wish Alinsky were around to grab the heads of these super-capitalist GOP presidential candidates. He would knock some together like coconuts.

Capitalism without a leash is predatory and ravenous. Alinsky taught working-class and poor people how to organize and confront companies and governments that exploited them or ignored their needs.

 As a mid-career reporter two decades ago I covered forums in which urban people pressed powerful leaders to publicly enter into covenants that affirmed they would behave responsibly, whether the issue was good corporate citizenship or good government.

Why are such civic notions noxious to the opponents gunning for Obama’s job?

Meanwhile, Detroit has been a basket case since the time Obama inherited the presidency. The region’s car industry was about to die and unemployment was at a depression-level 30 percent.

Faced with those onerous conditions, the new president made a few choices that took my breath away: He fired the CEOs of near-bankrupt General Motors and Chrysler. In order to get government loans, Obama demanded that GM slim down its brands to four, and he ordered Chrysler to hook up with Fiat, the Italian car maker that left the U.S. market a quarter century ago.

Back then there was a joke that F-i-a-t spelled “fix it again Tony.”

However, today the import has returned to America with simpler, more efficient products.

Still, I was uncomfortable with Obama in the brief role of car-dealer-in-chief.

At that moment I was siding with his GOP critics. Yet, I understood Obama’s need to act decisively in the face of a probable depression.

Today’s data suggests his risky moves paid off. GM has emerged as the No. 1 automaker again, and Chrysler is a viable company that has found its swagger. Ford, which got its groove back despite the Great Recession, continues to roll.

The Republicans may repeat zombie-like that Obama’s government loans and stimulus incentives failed, but voters should not be fooled, or as our cool Daddy-o president sometimes says, “fall for the okey doke.”

Many sectors of the American economy are healing. More people’s lives can get better if we pursue the American ethos of fair shots, fair shares and everyone playing by the same rules, instead of rigged games for oligarchs.