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...

A Time To Reflect...OS Mulls November 2012

OldSouth hasn't disappeared, loyal legions of readers. But he has taken some time to reflect. The masthead still holds true--Culture Shapes Economy.

There has been much much much hand-wringing about the election outcome of last week. OS did not hold great hope that Mr. Romney would prevail against Himself and Himself's minions, although he came impressively close.

So the first conclusion OS draws is:

There are some 57 million people out in the voting public who did not totally drink the Obama Kool-Aid. That's a lot of people.

Much of the hand wringing has been about 'how the country has changed, it is a blacker/browner/immigrant/food-stamp culture that sees the government as Santa Claus (as Mr. Limbaugh so succinctly states it), etc, etc.'

Well, yes. This should not be surprising. When even gas-station convenience markets along the interstate highway system proudly post signs that that accept SNAP cards and other forms of government assistance cards for payment, the ground has shifted under our feet.

Second conclusion:

Piles of cash left out on the sidewalk will attract all manner of people, from the Jon Corzine types to drug-addicted street people, seeking their share of the loot. We should not be surprised that people will vote for the folks who deliver the piles of cash to the sidewalk. Mr. Romney's comments about the 47% were unfortunate because they was only descriptive. He did not, sadly, address the bigger issue of the moral hazard that accompanies government largesse, be it to banks or single mothers.

One would think, that given his dismal record, Mr. Obama and company didn't stand a chance. It's only logical.

Third conclusion:

Logic is over-rated. The behavior of most people, whether political, financial, romantic etc is driven by emotion. Obama understands this perhaps better than most of this present age. Just as did Eva Peron in hers. 

We are accustomed to a simpler political model: Candidate gains office via election, governs/serves/legislates for the appointed term, and spends some final months of the term making the case for a return to office. Easy. This model no longer is in use. 

OS has a friend in Ohio now exhausted by it all. Turns out, the Obama campaign of 2008 never departed, never let up a moment, kept all its Ohio offices open. These past four years have not been about governance, they have been a perpetual 2012 campaign.

Fourth conclusion:

At some point, chickens do come home to roost, to quote one famous clergyman of Mr. Obama's acquaintance. At some point, Mr. Obama will actually have to govern, and OS hears the faint sounds of clucking and crowing over the horizon. 

All those happy folks in the crowd in Chicago, the TrueBelievers, were jubilant last Tuesday evening. Good for them, they had worked hard, won, and got to celebrate and cheer. No problem there. But OS found himself thinking 'These folk aren't just celebrating that their guy won. They seem to be cheering for some watershed event, that from this day forward the culture of Protestant Heterosexual Monogamy/Work/Frugality has been dealt a mortal blow, and WE are going to replace it with our own Utopian Vision.'


Fifth conclusion:

Be careful what you ask for; you wishes may come true. Those stories about finding the magical lamp are cautionary tales.

Back to the hand-wringing folks. Either our ideas work on the historical long view or they don't. Math is math or it isn't. Physics is physics or it isn't. God is either mocked or He isn't. Christianity asserts that the Almighty is just that. He is the Potentate of Time, and rulers rule only with His forebearance. He always brings good out of evil, as Bonhoeffer reminds us. 

Sixth conclusion:

If we do a bit less hand-wringing, and go quietly about the business of building our families, churches, communities and states, we'll all do better. Instead of railing about Obama and his friends, make certain your grandchildren know their hymns and Psalms. It's pretty difficult to lord it over  people with hearts and heads full of that poetry. Remember the era of samizdat in the old Soviet Union--pulled the regime down brick by brick in the end.

It ain't over 'til its over. God may be doing us a favor, we're not privy to Divine Intentions.

It ain't over yet.