The Great Gatsby and the GOP

Careless people...

“They smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made.”

Stay with me…

I taught the novel six times a day for seven years straight. I can quote “The Great Gatsby” like I can “Goodnight Moon.” I know it like the back of my hand.

I know when Nick finally introduces Gatsby in the third chapter and I know the second Gatsby’s breath will be taken away when he sees Daisy in Nick’s parlor after so many years apart. I know Tom’s racism and Jordan’s hubris and Nick’s Midwestern third-wheeling and Daisy’s, well, her whiteness.

I know the reason Myrtle had to die was because she was a woman from the wrong side of the tracks without morals and being an immoral woman is only acceptable if you are also wealthy — see Daisy or Jordan. I know that her husband, George, had to commit murder and suicide because he was a working class man who understood that eyes of Doctor T. J. Eckleburg were looking down on him, like God, and forcing him to complete the acts. He had to cleanse his wife and himself.

I know the book…I love the book. I taught it to hundreds of students and the quote I started this essay with has always stuck. The careless people were Tom and Daisy.

Tom and Daisy are quite representative of the folks the GOP work for — even representative of the those in cabinet positions in the last administration. The filthy and obscenely wealthy. Those who are absolutely careless in how they treat others. Always negligent.

They smashed up things and creatures:

The billionaires. They write laws for their lackeys and toadies and brown-nosing enablers in state houses across the country, and they were also appointed to several positions during the Trump administration.

They wrote laws against diversity, equity, and inclusion. Laws trying to ban the teaching of History. They tried to demolish the bedrock of our democracy by attacking public schools. They attacked teachers by calling them groomers and pedophiles. They accused librarians of providing porn to children.

They wrote laws to “protect women” by beating up the trans community with sports bans. They instituted laws to criminalize trans parents and children’s bodies. They monitored bathrooms.

They banned abortion even when it killed women in the name of being “pro-life.” They put guns into the hands of domestic violence offenders and racists bent on harming others — they lauded great people on both sides.

They wrote laws to roll back regulations on everything from civil rights to child labor. They deregulated environmental laws meant to keep our water and air clean for our children. They wrote laws to bypass the money in politics rules. They bought judges who sit on the highest court in the land.

These laws, written by the wealthy, are meant to reverse the trajectory of progress in our country. These laws are meant to smash up things and creatures.

They retreat back into their money and let others clean up the mess they had made:

Donald Trump. Wilbur Ross. Steven Mnuchin. Jared Kushner. William (Bill) Barr.

They are filthy rich and left the country reeling after they left the top office and cabinet positions. But, as a former teacher, the one that really sticks out to me is Betsy DeVos.

DeVos is worth 5.4 billion. As most of you probably remember, she was appointed as the Secretary of Education during the Trump Administration. When her appointment was up, when she had wrecked as many students and had done as much damage as she could do to public schools, she retreated back to her mansions and yachts and let the next administration clean up the mess she had made.

During her tenure, she rescinded protections for transgender students in public schools. She rescinded Obama-era guidance intended to reduce racial discrimination in school discipline. She advocated for massive cuts in federal education spending. She advocated for defunding public schools and sending taxpayer money to private and religious schools through “school choice.” She shilled for the for-profit college industry that has defrauded students for decades…including Trump University.

Nearly four years after DeVos’s reign of terror ended, public schools, and the Department of Education, are still trying to clean up the mess DeVos made.

In “The Great Gatsby” Tom and Daisy ran away to escape responsibility — like when they left Chicago to escape Tom’s affair scandal and when they ran from the Gatsby affair. They were deeply careless people who took no notice of the harm they caused — from the beginning of the novel to the end.

At the end of the novel, Tom and Daisy move on without a care about the lives they destroyed. Their money keeps them together and moving up in the world no matter the messes they make.

Their money, their status, and their carelessness won. Every. Time.

Tom and Daisy…so much like the folks we just kicked out of office. They tried, and often succeeded, in smashing up people and things. They all retreated back into their wealth after they left office. Many of the men and women who smashed up things in the last administration are waiting in the wings to come back and break things again.

To break them, to break us, because they can.

Their messes are too big. We can’t afford to clean up after them again.

~Jess