You use the word "Marxist" the way liberals use the word racist: not as a descriptive term, but as a form of name calling, which is the lowest form of discord.
Do you know what a Marxist is? Have you read Marx? I read some of him in college. I have read
The Communist Manifesto several times. When I took a fascinating seminar on
Das Kapital given by the American Communist Party I already owned most of the books on the reading list, including all there volumes of
Das Kapital, printed in Moscow by Progress Publishers.
When I showed my father the reading list for the seminar, Dad, who was an economist, said, "The man leading the seminar knows a lot about economics."
Indeed. Although the card carrying member of the American Communist Party earned his living as a physicist, he knew a lot about many things. While performing his day job, and leading the seminar, he was translating a book from Russian to Swedish on behalf of the Soviet government.
I believe one should read a political thinker for insight, rather than doctrine.
As I am sure you know, Edmund Burke is considered to the the founder of British conservatism. From him I have learned to be pessimistic about human nature and human potential. I have learned that there is often wisdom in tradition.
I think Marx had two valid insights, and that he was mistaken about everything else. His insights are: the natural tendency of capitalism is to accumulate wealth and income at the top; partly as a result capitalism goes through increasingly destructive economic downturns.
That is what did happen from the publication of
The Communist Manifesto in 1848 to the Stock Market Crash of 1929. President Franklin Roosevelt countered these tendencies with steeply progressive taxation, a minimum wage, strong labor unions, and other reforms. As a result the United Stated developed the largest and richest middle class in the world.
President Ronald Reagan countered these reforms by cutting taxes for the rich. Consequently wealth again accumulates at the top. The national debt has grown. Recessions have become longer and deeper. They are often followed by "jobless recoveries" when the gross domestic product (GDP) grows, but unemployment remains high.
Marx also recommended several beneficial economic reforms, such as:
"2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax,"
and
"10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children’sfactory labour in its present form."
Marx's most egregious error was his assertion, "The working men have no country."
For most people most of the time loyalties of race, nation, and ethnicity are stronger than loyalties of class.
Marx explains the Great Depression. He does not explain the First World War, the rise of Italian Fascism, and German Nazism, and the fact that in the United States the white working class is a Republican constituency.