John MerlineEditor’s note: This year, we decided to re-gift something. So we dug into the archives and found a piece written for our former editorial home, Investor’s Business Daily, more than a decade ago.
Just about every year at this time, “A Christmas Carol” shows up somewhere on TV, as do headlines about how one Republican or another is the modern equivalent of the tale’s greedy miser, Ebenezer Scrooge.
“The GOP’s sad Scrooge agenda.” “GOP Protecting Ebenezer Scrooge.” “Maher Likens Republicans to Ebenezer Scrooge.” “Republicans play the role of the stingy Scrooge.”
You have to wonder if these folks have actually read “A Christmas Carol” or spent any time pondering what Scrooge actually says and does. Because if you do, you come to realize that Scrooge more closely resembles a modern liberal than a conservative.
A major clue comes early in the story, when two men collecting for charity arrive at Scrooge’s office. After asking Scrooge for a donation to help the poor and needy, Scrooge responds: “Are there no prisons? And the Union workhouses? Are they still in operation? The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigor?”
He goes on to say, “I help to support the establishments I have mentioned — they cost enough; and those who are badly off must go there.”
Modern translation: I pay taxes to support the welfare state, why should I give money to you?
Turns out, that’s a decidedly liberal viewpoint.
Studies have consistently shown that big-government liberals donate far less money to private charities than conservatives. In his book “Who Really Cares,” Arthur Brooks notes that households headed by conservatives give 30% more to charity than households headed by liberals. Another study found that even poor conservatives donate more than rich liberals .
There are other facets to Scrooge’s character that line up better with modern liberals.
During that same conversation, Scrooge says it might be better for the poor who are unwilling to go on welfare to die “and decrease the surplus population.”
Cold and heartless, yes. But which side is always bemoaning overpopulation? From Paul Ehrlich in the late 1960s to environmentalists today, it’s been a fixation of the left, not the right.
Al Gore, for example, once urged making “fertility management ubiquitously available” to fight the scourge of carbon-producing people.
Also, like most liberals today, Scrooge was clearly a religious skeptic and not a churchgoer. In fact, Dickens points out that one of the first things Scrooge does on the Christmas morning after his visits by the three spirits is get on his knees and pray, and then he goes to church.
A 2012 study in Social Psychological and Personality Science concluded that “religious individuals tend to be more conservative.” A Gallup survey found that 55% of conservatives, but just 27% of liberals, are “frequent” churchgoers. And a Social Capital Community Benchmark Survey found that religious conservatives outnumber religious liberals in America nearly four to one.
Scrooge was also unhappy, a mood found more frequently on the left. Pew Research, for example, found that conservatives were 68% more likely to say they were “very happy” than liberals, and that this “happiness gap” has existed since 1972.
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The fact that Scrooge was single and childless puts him on the left side of today’s political spectrum.
Writing in the New York Times, Arthur Brooks notes that 53% of conservatives are married, vs. 33% of liberals, “and almost none of the gap is due to the fact that liberals tend to be younger.” Conservatives also have more kids than liberals.
Scrooge was a liberal. QED.
I & I Editorial Board
This was a good essay and addressed a truth we don’t often see mentioned in the Christmas Carol. Scrooge is usually condemned for anything and everything, because as a rich man, he made an easy target. Yes, he WAS greedy and yes, he WAS unconcerned about others, and yes he WAS only concerned about the bottom line. But none of that made him a conservative, and yes he WAS a liberal. But there’s more – as per usual, these stories always mendaciously turn all poor people into saints, as if virtue is bestowed upon them just because they’re needy. And lastly, Scrooge – without the help of God – and by his own efforts, changed his nature and became a good person. That might happen in Hollywood, but not in the real world. So while the story has some good points, as the author points out, it’s a mixed bag; so as secular liberals always do, it gets many things completely wrong as well. Thanks for mentioning one of these errors.
You wrote, “And lastly, Scrooge – without the help of God – and by his own efforts, changed his nature and became a good person.” I disagree. The underlying, supportive, theme was that some higher power, God, sent Marley to warn of the spirits. Marley says as much, “I have been sent…..” if I recall correctly. Thus Scrooge was inspired to change, not through his own efforts, but by the reality of the future he faces but for the visitations. He says at his grave, “I am not the man I was but for these visitations.”
Well, if you’re going to revert of Latin, Scrooge was also a rectal orifice, ergo a liberal. Res ipsa loquitur.
Good article … but PLEASE STOP LETTING YOURSELF BE DUPED WITH LEFTIST WORD GAMES … particularly the Left’s corruption of our English Language.
To wit: There is NOTHING “Liberal” about the Left; where, in fact, they are largely antithetical in ther fundamental nature, in so many ways, to the notion of true “Liberalism”.
The Left loves when others use the word “Liberal”; it is so much more welcoming, but much more deceptive regarding their true colors and intentions. [Note: the word “Liberal” is hardly the only English word that they have so corrupted, but that’s another subject.]
Contrary to the true and fundamental meaning of the word “Liberal”, these Leftists are NOT open-minded, they are NOT understanding, they are NOT considerate of the alternate viewpoints of others … while further, they are manifestly ANTI-LIBERTY, they are ANTI-INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, they are CONDESCENGING, and are overall MEAN-SPIRITED.
You, in your profession, more than most, need to be [read: MUST be] cognizant of the impact of the proper use of proper language; the power of vocabulary; the messaging in the turning of a phrase … yet, with your well-intended article, you fail in this basic duty.
In the end, I thank you for your well-intended effort and hope that either you can adjust appropriately your future writings, or, regarding this matter, inform me of my errors in logic.
A BLESSED MERRY CHRISTMAS TO US ALL … EVERYONE!
Which Scrooge was a liberal? The old Scrooge or the new Scrooge?
Thank you for the reprint of this article.
In the same vein, a few years ago someone wrote in the Wall Street Journal that ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’ George Bailey certainly should have gone to work for Mr. Potter.