The Democratic Party & the Illusion of Splits in the Ruling Class, was Re: Cockburn: The Coup

[Justin Schwartz]

In my experience, the Marxist critique of capitalism is common sense to most 
working people; it's pretty obvious that the rich run things, that democracy 
is a joke, that work is drag because the bosses exploit us, etc. These ideas 
can gain wide currency if expressed without Marxist technical vocabulary,w 
hich is offputting. The basic ideas of socialism, that democracy would be 
extended to the economy, that we can run things ourselves without bosses to 
tell us what to do, can also be "sold" to a lesser degree if expressed in 
plain, commonsense terms. The "opulist" overtone is a matter of playing on 
class resentments. Is this a petit bourg spin? If so, does it matter? --jks


>Chris Kromm wrote:
>
>>Alexander Cockburn puts the point nicely in one of his essays, that you 
>>can
>>win over lots of people to radical ideas (even marxist ones) in America, 
>>but
>>only if dressed in the language of populism.
>
>Hmm, what's that mean? Put a petit bourg spin on everything?
>
>Doug

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