The Position of the American Worker in the State

Abstract

I hope that everything that I have so far set out in relation to the characteristic attitude of the American worker towards politics and his distinctive position in politics accounts plausibly for the fact that the proletariat in the United States has not so far come forward to form its own party; I hope that it could be said that what I have set out explains the lack of any formal representation of the Socialist viewpoint. However, it still does not sufficiently explain why Socialist perspectives are so weakly developed in America nor why the mood, whose existence we have already acknowledged, favouring acceptance of the political and social order is dominant in the great bulk of the American working class. It would be wrong to underestimate the moral content of this mood and to attribute all manifestations of its joyful optimism purely and simply to the prospects of achieving an office in the State. On looking more deeply into the matter, we find that the strong aversion of the American worker to Socialist tendencies of the embittered sort to be found in Europe is to be explained in good part by the distinctiveness of his political situation. In particular, his love for the existing State is certainly explained by the political position that he occupies in this State.