Politics / December 25, 2024
The president-elect and his unelected millionaire friends have gone completely Dickensian in their attempt to make greed great again.
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In the 1938 MGM production of A Christmas Carol, Reginald Owen, who plays Scrooge, converses with his deceased business partner Marley, played by Leo G. Carroll.
Charles Dickens introduced us to Ebenezer Scrooge, a “wringing, twisting, grasping, scraping, grasping, greedy, old sinner” in one of the most famous morality tales of the 19th century. Today, Scrooge’s name has become synonymous with the kind of revenge and destructive greed practiced by our wealthy class.
Serious readers of A Christmas Carol doubt that Dickens, who wrote some of the great literary hymns to the social conscience, would condemn the incoming Trump administration’s old sinners if he still had the idea. I wouldn’t be able to do that. He will take particular issue with the president-elect and his meddler Elon Musk, who has formed a modern-day variation on the Scrooge-Jacob Marley partnership. The afterlife – they were partners in greed.
Trump was narrowly empowered by voters in November, but Musk is not in an elected position. But even if he enjoys relative legitimacy as a ministerial post, that does not justify his slash-and-burn shenanigans in the Ministry of Government Efficiency. Or Trump’s respect for Musk’s shadow government. Neither of these pessimists has a national mandate that they now claim violates the interests of the poor, vulnerable, sick, and elderly.
But as Christmas approached this year, Trump and Musk joined forces to water down the budget resolution. Among its many noble initiatives is funding to combat childhood cancer, and the two argued the resolution included “unnecessary spending.” This intervention by Scrooge, even more so than Scrooge, comes under fire due to the growing influence of unelected billionaires over the ruthless brutality of the men now known as “President Musk” and “Vice President Trump.” It caused a commotion.
Mr. Musk and Mr. Trump’s attempt to waive the Gabriella Miller Kids First Research Act 2.0 was quickly overturned by a bipartisan coalition in the Senate. But the continuing fiasco of resolutions wasn’t the only Dickensian measure promulgated by Musk and his government efficiency ministry buddy Vivek Ramaswamy. These privileged charlatans are now, with encouragement from a growing number of Republicans in Congress, openly considering the possibility of entitlement cuts that could tear the social safety net to shreds. Many fear it will pave the way for the historic right of the Republican Party. The goal of privatizing Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.
The headline tells how proponents of the “Make America Great Again” promise defined “again” as sometime in the winter of 1843. As a Rolling Stone headline reports, “Elon Musk wants to pay for tax cuts” on your Social Security and Medicare. ”
This is a thoroughly Dickensian equation, the kind the author anticipated in the opening stave of A Christmas Carol.
Scrooge remembers when he was approached by gentlemen who appealed to him for his “generosity” in “making a small provision for the poor and needy who are now suffering so much.” mosquito?
Scrooge is informed by this sociable do-gooder that “some of us are endeavoring to raise money to buy meat and drink and means of warmth for the poor.” Ta. We choose this time of year because, more than any other time of year, scarcity is acutely felt and abundance is rejoiced. Why should I degrade you? ”
“Nothing!” replied Scrooge. He explained: “I have no intention of pleasing myself at Christmas, nor can I afford to please those who are free.” When informed that he might relieve the burden of the poor, he replied, “It is my business.” No,” he retorted.
So Dickens began writing A Christmas Carol, a book that reflected the radical tenor of a time when the world was coming to terms with the truth that poverty and desolation need not be accepted by civil society, that is, by civilized people. Dickens had Scrooge speak the language of corrupt merchants and politicians who opposed the revolutionary movements that were sweeping through Europe at the time the author was writing his ghost stories.
Dickens imagined that cheerful stimulation from the ghosts of Christmases past, present, and future would transform Scrooge. After spending a restless Christmas Eve, receiving reproofs from the deceased and repentant Marley, the businessman hurries out into the streets of London and meets one of the gentlemen. Scrooge announces his intention to donate generously to the current collection, offering, “I assure you that there is a large amount of unpaid money in it.”
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The poor suddenly became misers. In other words, Scrooge became “as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man as any good old city, or any good old city, town, or borough of the good old world.”
Scrooge has changed. But there is still no sign that today’s Scrooge is “shining with the goodness” that made Dickens’ old sinner a better man. In fact, there is every evidence to suggest that Trump and Musk’s atrocities could put Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley to shame. All we can do is hope that the ghost of conscience goes away. And I hope that we can all have a cheerful Christmas.
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John Nichols
John Nichols is The Nation’s national affairs correspondent. He has written, co-authored, or edited more than a dozen books on topics ranging from the history of American socialism and the Democratic Party to analyzes of the American and global media systems. His latest book, co-written with Sen. Bernie Sanders, is the New York Times bestseller, “It’s Okay to Be Angry About Capitalism.”
