>The other underlying issue I would suggest we can see, is how in marxist
>analysis the state, while being an instrument of class rule, also has to
>stand above classes. Republicans and Democrats cannot forget that they have
>an interest in how much the President is discredited, but it seems to me,
>and some can suggest I am just being naive, that they genuinely think they
>must do the decent and honourable thing. It is suggested how heavy this
>moral burden is. Worse almost than the plight of the people of Bangladesh
>with half their country under floodwater, worse than the plight of millions
>in the smashed economy of Indonesia. But the management of the super-class
>aspect is necessary in every state, and sometimes takes on a life of its own.
Once again, more confusion from Burford in the name of Marxism. The state does not have to "stand above classes." It has to give the impression of doing so. This is an important distinction. On all of the key questions of society, the bourgeois state represents the interests of the ruling class as a whole against the working class as a whole. If it stood above classes, we would not need socialism.
The ruling class politicians have no interest in doing the "decent and honourable thing." What has happened is that a scandal has gotten out of control. They want to return to the status quo ante, where scandal remains under control. Subscribers to Alex Cockburn and Ken Silverstein's "Counterpunch" newsletter get a steady diet of reports on the debauchery and corruption of both parties. What happened with Clinton is that he got caught. If he hadn't gotten caught with his fingers in the cookie-jar, so to speak, the scandal would have been contained.
Burford's final sentence about the management of the super-class aspect is necessary in every state, and sometimes takes on a life of its own is just wishful thinking. It is an expression of middle-class liberalism tainted with Marxish jargon. If there is anything obvious about the Carter-Reagan-Bush-Clinton years, it is that the 2 parties have dispensed with many of the lingering New Deal illusions about the state mediating between the two major classes in society.
Louis Proyect
(http://www.panix.com/~lnp3/marxism.html)