this post was submitted on 09 Jun 2026
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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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[–] AssortedBiscuits@hexbear.net 10 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

They don't really represent factions of capital anymore because they aren't really two distinct parties. The duopoly is just professional wrestling. It's why there's always party realignment. No faction of the bourgeoisie goes all-in on any party. They either hedge their bets, constantly flip-flop, or just pick a party that offers minor perks at best with the understanding that the duopoly upholds US imperialism anyways. Some factions straight up don't care. For example, the MIC does not care who is nominally in charge since the defense budget never goes down and they'll get their massive trillion dollar checks anyways. They don't even care that much about any difference in any geopolitical "vision" offered by the parties since the grift will happen one way or another.

It's like how Democrats are ostentatiously the less pro-police party, but the police departments with the largest funding are all in blue areas while the police in red areas are comparatively underfunded. Which party is really pro-police? To ask and attempt to answer the question is to fall for the duopoly kabuki theatre.

[–] BigTuffAl@lemmy.zip 5 points 21 hours ago

☝️ this is it exactly