why do conservatives speak of the goverment as an abstact enity?

[rockstars must die]

I was curious as why conservatives always speak of the "Goverment" as an abstact enity. As if they cant control the goverment and that it thinks and acts all by itself. Are they not the goverment?

[¿Que?]

Because if they considered the government concretely, then they would have to admit it is complicit in capitalist exploitation. To put it another way, they would have to admit that the free market/government dichotomy is spurious and all their arguments would fall apart.

[jake williams]

I was curious as why conservatives always speak of the "Goverment" as an abstact enity. As if they cant control the goverment and that it thinks and acts all by itself. Are they not the goverment?
It's ideologically useful for two main reasons.

It helps them fight those aspects of the state that business does not like (certain regulations and taxes, as well as social spending).

But it also gets workers to blame their own problems on the state, rather than on business (ie. taxes on workers, defense and other anti-worker spending, repressive laws against workers like traffic fines and marijuana laws, and so on).

Basically, it's a way of lining up workers with legitimate grievances to fight against their own class interests by weakening those aspects of the state that business wants weakened. The problem is when those workers try to weaken those aspects of the state which business needs: see, for example, the more populist parts of the Tea Party protesting the bank bailouts or defense spending.

It's not perfect, nor can any pro-capitalist solution be; but so far, it's worked pretty well.

[¿Que?]

This thread should be moved to learning, probably. Introductions are for introductions.