Vol. 72/No. 14      April 7, 2008

Gossip, speculation, and “news” about details of the private lives of New York governor David Paterson and his predecessor Elliot Spitzer have flooded the newspapers and television.

These news stories aim to focus the attention of working people on the moral character of the “rich and powerful” and the latest titillating tidbit printed about their personal affairs instead of their political assaults against the working class.

For example, as stories of his marital infidelities capture the headlines, the Paterson administration has joined the New York mayor and other politicians in a drive to raise tolls, fees, and train fares for workers in the city.

These scandals reflect the growing factionalism, demagogy, and degradation of political discourse in bourgeois politics. A sharpening tone that takes the form of personal attacks are the hallmark of this. It is spurred by frustration, uncertainty, and fear among sections of the ruling class with their inability to find a self-confident political course out of the deepening economic and social crisis of world capitalism.

The Spitzer scandal also revealed the scope of the assault on privacy that the ruling class is seeking to legitimize under the banner of fighting the “war on terrorism.”

Federal police have greatly expanded their use of fishing expeditions into personal financial records, wiretapping, and electronic surveillance. These are all intended as tools to be used by the ruling class as the crisis deepens and workers seek avenues to organize and resist.

One good sign is the widespread disgust among many working people at the endless string of scandals. “Keep it to yourself! We don’t want to hear it!” many are saying.

That response is part of the de-pornographication of politics. It is a step toward political and class clarity.

By refusing to be drawn into the low-level personal attacks and scandals, those who take this stand are choosing the moral high ground over the gutter of the politics of resentment. Such attitudes also help prepare working people for the day when the same methods are used to smear leaders of union struggles and leaders of other battles by the oppressed and exploited.
 
 
Related articles:
Workers repelled by N.Y. scandal mongering
 
 
 
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