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So what are the factions of capital that the democrat and republican parties represent? (hexbear.net)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by CaliforniaSpectre@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

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I'm listening to Hell of Presidents again and it's always incredibly refreshing to hear such a materialist framing for the early days of the US. Like understanding why the goal of not forming parties immediately failed because of conflicts between different factions of capital (e.g. southern slavers vs. northern bankers).

But then what do Republicans and Democrats represent today? I understand they are historical holdovers from over a century ago, so they have have metastasized into a whole lot more than just representing one or two factions of capital, but there must be some materialist divide between them? Or maybe during the neoliberal turn it was recognized by capital to set aside differences and ultimately control both to give the working class even less power than they already had. But now it seems like the tech fascists are trying to coalesce into the Republicans, and I guess that's what the Republicans are atm, just a more openly fascistic bourgeois party than the democrats?

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[–] Owl@hexbear.net 13 points 1 day ago

Pre-Trump it was national vs international bourgeoisie, but i's nothing coherent now. The new right wing is an ideologically driven fascist movement. They can, have, and will continue to do things that are against their own material interests, and while material interests have to win out eventually, this can last quite some time before it settles into a new materially-coherent system. The bourgeoisie are reacting to this in different ways.

Some are jumping ship and joining the democrats. And because the democrats are just their donors' interests in a trench coat, you can already see the effects of this with them insistently adopting formerly republican stances.

Some are taking the gamble that they'll be able to steer the disaster in their favor, or maybe get their people entrenched in the party for when this fizzles out and it turns back into a normal bourgeoisie political party. They want to be a disproportionately powerful arm of the new party like the NRA was of the old. This might be why the tech sector has pivoted towards the republicans - they're the biggest in capital terms, but don't have the entrenched power that older industries have.

And some are ideologically committed fascists themselves. They do not need materialist reasons for their support, and thus come from a completely random sampling across industries. This might also be why the tech sector has pivoted towards the republicans - they all have majority share holders that are just some specific asshole from a privileged background.