Politics and class

Even if power is intrinsic to every relation, "politics" under capitalism is a role assigned specifically to the state: it is the pursuit of state power by competing groups. In keeping with this technical definition, everything outside the realm of government cannot be "politics," but something else -- "economics," "culture," "science," and so on.

Interpreting the world through the prism of "politics" means seeing things from the vantage point of the political classes. This is the simplest explanation as to why "politics" is an alienating subject for most people, since it proceeds from the self-interested assumptions of a specialized class, not the experiences of ordinary Americans.

As Marx might note, seeing the world through a "political" lens, narrowly defined, produces advantages and disadvantages which are themselves political in the broader sense of the term. For one thing, it preferences the class interests of politicians over the class interests of, say, people who work for a living. These are two totally different groups, with distinct interests; and it's worth noting that they have completely different relations to the employer class, which gives generously to one while taking away from the other -- in fact, for the very purpose of taking away from the other. Under such a scenario, working people are at a huge disadvantage to the extent that their concerns are framed by the prerogatives of a hostile class.

If we interpret this weekend's march on Washington as a "conservative" event, we foreclose the possibility of seeing it as a working class event which has been sponsored by corporate advocates. By and large, these are working people with grievances stemming from economic hardship, who feel that government is too large and unresponsive, and otherwise fails to represent them. They have been organized to confront Obama on behalf of the same corporate concerns that pay Glenn Beck's salary and own his network. They articulate a general dissatisfaction with government in addressing their needs, then carp about "socialism" -- perhaps the natural enemy of the pro-business entertainer; not so much the average American trying to find a job.

From a class perspective, the interests of working people deserve to be consolidated and advanced by working people as a class. This means that people without work or without health care, or anyone vulnerable in this regard, have more important things in common than who they vote for, what God they worship, or whether or not they would have an abortion. After all, one does not go bankrupt and lose their home owing to their party affiliation, but thanks to a different set of relations entirely.

This is an argument that needs to be presented to people suffering from economic problems. It is also a counterargument that can easily undermine the irrationality of corporate populism, were activists inclined to break with the priorities of the Democratic Party in favor of their own.