We’ve just seen one of the best documentaries ever, Brooklyn Castle , the story of a middle school in Brooklyn, its incredible chess team, and the amazing poor kids and their families that populate the story.

The movie made me realize the ease with which we suburbanites forget about or even look down upon inner city families and their struggles; and the fact that education is being sacrificed because rich bankers are pilfering the economy – as even the conservative assistant principal in the school laments.  The shenanigans of Wall Street and the government regulators who looked the other way have profound impacts on the ground – threatening something as wholesome and good as the chess program as Intermediate School 318 in Brooklyn.

We social conservatives wonder why people voted for Obama over Romney.  Well, in people’s minds Obama stood for the inner city kids and their families who are doing their best while being victimized in Brooklyn and all over this country; and Romney – in people’s minds – stood for the fat cats whose pockets are protected no matter what, on Wall Street and all over the country. 

In this country, if I’m “too big to fail”, someone else has got to be “too small to matter”.

Yes, Obama also stood for Abortion-as-a-Positive-Good, Perversion-as-a-Sacrament and To-Hell-with-Religious-Liberty – but so did Romney (to a somewhat lesser extent), and people simply perceived the president as caring more for the little guy and Romney as not giving a damn for anyone but the affluent.

That’s what it all turned on. 

It’s not as complicated as chess – much simpler, really.

Chess, however, and the stories behind it, is much more interesting.  Go see Brooklyn Castle!