Gramsci, McCain and politics

A fascinating post by Paul Rosenberg at Open Left on how Gramsci’s ideas on politics applies to the recent story in the New York Times on John McCain, as well as the conservative movement’s attempt to deconstruct it. But as with other Rosenberg posts, you kind of have to sift through it to find the good stuff.

Rosenberg writes:

To overcome the power of hegemony, and create a workers revolution, Gramsci argued for a two-fold strategy, First, a “war of position” to build working-class counter-institutions, and take over bourgoise ones while promulgating working-class ideology. Second, once this stage was successful, then a “war of movement” to the actual insurrection against capitalism, with mass support that Marxist theory originally predicted.

Consciously or not, the American right has adopted Gramsci’s fundamental insight, but adapted it to their somewhat different position in society.  On the one hand, as Gramsci advised, they have dilligently built up their own institutional infrastructure, and attacked existing instriutional structures that they do not control, seeking either to take over or cripple or destroy them.  On the other hand, they have combined the war of position and war of movement into a more integrated whole, frequently taking advantage of a constellation of positions to launch a “war of movement” attack on an insitution they wish to cripple, destroy or take over, or an idea, principle, value, or narrative they wish to discredit, or subvert.