Thanksgiving Weekend, 2012

Life has been busy since OS last greeted his loyal army of readers. Eventful, blessed, productive, frightening at a few moments. 

OS's first grandson was welcomed into the world. If the events of his arrival serve as a portent, this young man is in for some real adventures. Those events (details don't really matter) also helped OS gain a bit of perspective in the process, about what is important, what is less important, and that which matters not at all. OS also learned that his first instincts regarding 'what-I-would-do-in-such-a-situation' were likely not the wisest course of action. He also learned that his daughter is one tough,  smart cookie, level-headed in the worst of crises, and that his son-in-law may be a more capable husband than first suspected.

That was just one episode since 6 November. The election just flew into the slipstream of life, and OS missed out on all the gnashing of GOP teeth in the aftermath.

OS regretted the outcome, but was not shocked by it. And given some days to ruminate, and a bit of newly-earned perspective. he finally has something to say.

Perhaps he has been wrong all along. He thought Obama and crew were an anomalous event, a case of a hustler who dupes his victims until all eventually unravels. He would be found out, moved out, and some semblance of sanity could be regained. This was an incorrect assumption.

Obama and his circle are not an anomalous event, and they are not the major problem we face as a nation (although they are problematic). Obama and Company are not the problem; they are the symptom, the natural product of a culture that has lost its sense of itself, its history, its values. 

Do Obama and Company lie about most everything, daily? Why, yes. The Petraeus Affair is just one example. This is serious stuff, ya'll. Hundreds upon hundreds of young people from the military of both the US and the UK arriving home either dead or maimed in body and spirit from Afghanistan, and we find out that their happily married commander is enthusiastically shagging his biographer, and a Washington Post staffer is serving as a ghost-writer for the biographer who is enthusiastically shagging the happily married commander in Afghanistan, the place from which hundreds upon hundreds of young people serving in the military arrive home to the US or UK either dead or maimed in body and spirit.

The standard Clintonian response is to claim, 'Well, that's just his private business, and does not impact his performance as an officer.' No harm/no foul.

OS dares anyone to try telling that to the bereaved families, or the wounded and their families. 

Go ahead, give it a try...let all of us know how you fare.

But the true moral of the story is, that for the vast majority of the citizens of the country, this stuff just doesn't matter. Truth, untruth/untruth, truth...ni modo, as the Mexicans say with a shrug.

The government runs guns to Mexican gangs, and hundreds of innocents are killed with them, and cabinet officers lie shamelessy about it? No matter.

Reports of no inflation when the price of fuel, milk and corn double? No response.

8.9% percent unemployment stats that really may be closer to 18.9%? No objection here. 

For poor souls like OS and his ilk, who believe we live in a created order, in a universe into which morality is woven, this is maddening. We rage and splutter and protest. But for the other half of the country, many of those assumptions simply do not hold sway. It isn't that they were considered and rejected, it's as if they never existed anyway. They never emerge above the intellectual radar horizon of their lives. It's not about race or income level, lest anyone be tempted toward that assumption. These folks live in all our neighborhoods, rich or poor, white or non-white.

For folks such as these, Obama is comforting, inspiring even. He can tell them WhatTheyWishToHear: That life is about them, their desires, their perceived needs, their fears, their stuff or lack thereof, their resentments, their perception of 'fairness'. That money really does grow on trees, that He Himself will look after them and smite the evil prosperous ones, and go to war against those nasty MiddleClassValues they so disdain.

Some claim, as did Romney and Limbaugh, that the vote was, in effect, bought by government largesse. This really is much too simplistic an answer.

So, given this, what next to do?

That question to be covered in subsequent posts. What to do, how to live in this strange, unfamiliar time?

In the meantime, OS is thoroughly enjoying his weekend with Mrs. OS, tidying up around the house, making soup, watching the Bond movies on the tube, talking with the kids.

And of course, googling at his grandson. For whom he is so grateful...