Nowhere do the “politicians” form a more separate and powerful section of the nation than in North America. Here, each of the two major parties, to which rule alternates, is itself governed by people who make a business out of politics, who speculate on seats in the federal and state legislatures, or who live off agitation for their party and are rewarded with jobs when they win. It is well known how Americans have been trying for 30 years to shake off this yoke that has become unbearable, and how, despite all this, they are sinking deeper and deeper into this swamp of corruption. It is precisely in America that we can best see how this independence of state power from society, of which it was originally intended to be a mere tool, is taking place. Here where there is no dynasty, no nobility, no standing army, except the few men to guard the Indians, no bureaucracy with permanent employment or pension rights. And yet here we have two great gangs of political speculators alternately seizing the power of the state and exploiting it by the most corrupt means and for the most corrupt ends – and the nation is powerless against these two great cartels of politicians, ostensibly in its service, but in reality dominating and plundering it.
London, on the 20th anniversary of the Paris Commune, March 18, 1891
