The Conservative Son

I finally came up with a nearly perfect metaphor for why so many in this prosaic nation are apparently fascinated with our new president. They see him as this beautiful and brilliant, articulate genius who will save the world, (or, at least, their version of the world,) but he is, in reality, no more than the tacky lamp stand in the holiday neo-classic "A Christmas Story."

If you've seen the movie, you'll recall, Darren McGavin, the "Old Man," is mesmerized by the "major award" he wins in a crazy trivia contest which is actually nothing more than some sort of throw away, unsaleable, good-for-nothing, gaudy, cheap, plastic piece of junk. He is fascinated simply because it somehow makes him feel special, although there's really nothing special about the lamp at all. Eerily, his children are also captivated by the "soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window" of their home.

His witless neighbors stand stupidly in the street, dumbfounded by the dull light from the lifeless leg in the window. None seem to comprehend that it's not really art, nor that, in reality, it's just kind of sad.

His wife alone realizes that it's crap, but the "Old Man," because it makes him feel special in a bogus sort of way, cannot see the true nature of the lamp. To him it "glows" in the night and gives pseudo-illumination to his otherwise gloomy existence.

When the lamp finally comes crashing down, he sorrowfully and biterly hugs its pieces to his broken heart. He glares at his wife, blaming its destruction on only one who recognized its genuine lack of value, defiantly declaring, in pathetically mumbled clarity, "Not a finger!" He never understood the true worthlessness of his beloved lamp.

When the cheap lamp we call Obama finally comes crashing down, those who believe in him, who believe in his truly false "hope" and "change," won't, I believe, budge an inch. They'll blame everyone but him and themselves. They'll do this because to condemn the lamp is to condemn themselves; to condemn the lamp is to condemn their judgement; to condemn the lamp is to condemn their dreams of what they feel this country should be. If they ever admit the truth, they'll be admitting that they were fools all along and that their foundation is made up of so much cheap plastic.

Yet, I can't help but wonder, when that cheesy lamp slams to the ground and shatters into a thousand little pieces, who will be standing over its broken remains? Will that one have been responsible for pushing it over? Will it be another, perhaps worse, megalomaniac who will self-centeredly taking that prime opportunity to wreck the world for his own aggrandizement? Who will it be? Hopefully, it will simply fall over under its own weight.

I don't know, but I can hardly wait to hear the crash! I only pray that those of us who recognize the difference between art and junk and right and wrong don't come crashing down with it.

Labels: "A Christmas Story", Barack Obama, Darren McGavin