The conception of US politics held by a stereotypical Marxist is “They are all bad! All the politicians work for big money interests! We need a working class revolution to get rid of them all!” While this may be common among those who have only a basic understanding of Marxian thinking, this was certainly not the analysis of Karl Marx when observing french politics in 1851.
When military officials dubbed “The Party of Order” grouped around the nephew of Napoleon Bonaparte took over France, government policies changed significantly. It was not a revolution, but an attempt to make the system function better with authoritarian methods. Marx observed and studied the 1851 coup, composing his famous pamphlet “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte.” He came to understand that when the rate of profit falls, and instability abounds, the rich and powerful begin fighting among themselves.
The new French regime built railroads, legalized labor unions and strikes, created hospitals for poor people, and enacted other dramatic reforms hoping to restore stability. Louis Napoleon violently suppressed many wealthy french capitalists who wanted “laissez faire” policies to continue. The reforms enacted by the “Party of Order” were only a temporary fix, and 20 years later France was once again in a crisis, with the Paris Commune emerging in 1871. When one section of the rich violently suppresses others, and takes dramatic action at the expense of other capitalists, this is what Marxists call “Bonapartism.”
In recent American history, the key issue of division among America’s ruling elite has been how to combat the rise of Russia and China as competitors on the global stage. The rise of the Eurasian superpowers is something the billionaire monopolists who run the USA find intolerable. But what can be done about it? On this point, the powers that be often disagree, and clash with each other.
https://journal-neo.org/2017/12/05/russia-china-the-white-house-a-study-in-bonapartism/
