"There are no longer any major institutions … [ ]… which can be considered democratic "

Yes, there is one, albeit relatively small. That's KPFA/Pacifica Radio, and here in the San Francisco Bay Area we are fighting to keep it from being taken over by operatives from the Democratic Party.

This article pins the tail on the donkey in more ways than one.

I can't come to the defense of Pacifica Radio, since I believe they have largely lost their way during the past few years. Relevance, being there for the 'right' people, screeching liberalism in many cases, who knows the various reasons? I used to support them when they had a mandate, when they actually presented an alternative rather than a reaction. I wish them well, and hope they get their legs back.

At this point, it is the highly motivated and deeply disaffected middle class that is making their collective voice more and more loudly heard. They will not be completely coopted by clever talking heads.

Thank you, Mr. Hedges, for this outstanding article. To me it is a 'feel-good' article. Why? Because I am cheered and uplifted by the truthful statements you make. As in, it's high time plain language is used to properly identify the forces fully at work in securing the American prize for their own interests. Your clarity may sound radical to some people, but that's because the elements in play (that you are writing about) have been so successful.

I am patently sick of sensible people saying an issue is 'scary' or 'depressing' when said issue happens to become increasingly challenging. What is truly scary and depressing is when sensible people succumb to the corporate fascism you are writing about.

So, bravo, sir, for your courage and sanity. Please don't let up in getting the word across. As I have been developing similar thoughts based on my own observations through the years, I endeavor to make a difference in the ways I am capable. Thus do your statements make me feel better as a participant in these unprecedented times. I know 'feeling good' isn't an end in itself, but we can use all the accuracy, wisdom and insight we can get. Thanks again.

Mr Umbridge, you are a bit trigger-happy including "the arts" in your opening sentence. Jazz, the American art form, is still quite democratic. Go check out any jazz trio playing in your town, sit close, and listen to them debate which tune to play next, and who gets to take the first solo. Watch at the end of the night as they split your generous tip three ways! Democracy in action every night of the week in some bar near you!

The day the Democrats send those thieves, Summers and Geithner, and all like them packing, they will gain credibility.
The day they begin to look different in their actions from the Republicans, I will begin to ,support them again.
Not before!!
And I refuse to support blue dogs. They have bitten our ass all too often.

I consider Chris Hedges to be a brilliant journalist. He sees the circumstances that the US is in with a clarity devoid of dogma or ideology. I am grateful for his keen eye and skills as a writer.

However... I disagree with his solution. The solutions Mr. Hedges proposes are too late. The vise grip of the corporations (et al) is beyond removal. They control the money, the military (& all police forces), and the government (federal & state). We are in a checkmate situation. The game has been lost. This ship is going down.

It is time to take our lives, ideals, visions, morals, and money elsewhere. Look to South America where great social experiments are underway. While not perfect, the countries of South America are exploring ideas that will never be considered in the US. It is time to drain the US of our brains, bodies, and money. It is time to support people who are doing the good work. It is time to leave, and to watch from afar as the once great idea that was America crashes and burns from the greed, gluttony, and insanity of our ruling class. Quietly and carefully.... leave.

The logical conclusion:

One person tells ten, and they tell others... each votes. The system changes.

Remember, remember, the 2nd of November.

Vote Green Party!

www.GP.org

So, how's that bi-partisanship, great hOpe working out for you Jonathan?

That same old argument was disproven before -nobody owns my vote, nobody's entitled to it. You're also advocating for power, rather than representation, and that's not what our democracy is about.

Hedges makes a great point when he says the problem is corporate sponsorship at best (or ownership at worst) of the bi-partisan Establishment, including Obama.

The solution is to divest from corporate ownership of our govt. - and the ways to do that are through publicly financed elections, and removal of all corporate tentacles from our govt (ie movetoamend.org)

Was this written by a Tea Bagger? I used to think TruthOut was a rational media source, but this is pure BS --one of the most ridiculous pieces I've seen in TruthOut --- full of grandiose statements without facts, apparently paranoid about all kinds of conspiracies, faulting the Democrats for not being miracle workers in face of united Republican (and, yes, corporate) opposition.
And to boot, it seems to be mostly a shill piece publicizing Ralph Nader, the egotistic spoiler who helped Republicans get into office.

Hahaha! Keep the same old schmucks in power, Jonathan, because it's the way it should be... really, now, how's that bi-partisanship working out for you?

We've tried the lesser of two evils approach before - how about no evil? If Congress had semi-annual performance reviews, like everyone else that still has a job, they'd have ALL been fired a LONG TIME ago.

Time to do something radical, as Hedges suggests. Think outside the box, as the corporate-shrews like to say, vote for someone other than the usual suspects from the usual political parties.

Guess we aren't there yet....

In the comments there is an urgent thread of "We have to vote for the lesser of the evils..." And we might as well do that to slow the degradation of our society.

But voting for the lesser of the evils will not lead us to an egalitarian society, will it? No matter who we vote against (because we have never had anyone to vote "for"), we get the same dismantling of the middle class. Just a little slower or faster.

If we can figure out how to divest ourselves from this whole media-corporate-industrial-military complex, we might have a chance.

But I doubt it.

I second Ryan's comment. This system is beyond repair. It's too late to fundamentally change anything. The exponential complexity garners diminishing returns from here on out. It is indeed time to let the ship sink.

I'll add that the paradigm of continuous economic growth (which runs the world) is falling apart at the seams. Globalization's ponzi scheme has reached its apex, and now it's time for a new paradigm. Fate and humility, unite!

Read Epilogue to War and Peace (Tolstoy)

Change is incremental. Hedges is correct that a Republican victory in Nov. would be a disaster, and Democrats holding the line would be less of a disaster. Most Democrats are now owned by corporations, but its often a pragmatic (as in campaign finance) marriage rather than an ideological one. Repubs and TPers are lackeys for the rich and powerful, and Repubs are devoted to the enrichment of the elites and should be repudiated by anyone wondering where their next mortgage payment is coming from. Democrats could be replaced by more progressive Dems, . In the spirit of full disclosure, I am a member of the Green Party.

"The Rot And Corruption at the top levels of our financial and political systems" is endemic to centralized government - this is why local is good, while Federal is corrupt and wasteful (almost always) and this is the primary reason that I have abandoned the Democratic Party and will be voting for those who advocate a limited FEDERAL Government - perhaps this
is the 'horrific right-wing backlansh' this writer is talking about.  
It is time to abandon the stupid Left/Right paradigm - it is and always was a fraud which has been exploited to confuse and divide us - the issue isn't left vs right, it is big vs small - Federal vs Local.  If Ron Paul runs for President, I will vote for him and those like him in the other races - if they can keep religion out of their politics.  We are facing a financial reckoning due to the snake-oil Keynesian economics that have been given free run (despite Krugman's insane calls for even more 'stimulus' programs to enrich us via additional debt) and the 'wash-out' will be painful no matter what - it is baked into the cake.  Unlike Dems and Pubs, Libertarian philosophy is anti-corporation / pro-individual, pro-human rights - and that has been Paul's record, btw.  visit libertarian today dot com

And the writer's call for a socialist solution is very disturbing - have you ever spent time in a socialist country?  They realy, realy suck - which is why people from those places went through so much Hell to get here and think such talk is the depth of ignorance - get out sometime...

And to talk about whether we have a Democracy without mention of the totally hackable eVoting machines most American states use was an large omission - we have not had real elections for at least ten years - they are rigged.
 
 

"And we will have to remain true to the moral imperative to foster the common good and the tangible needs of housing, health care, jobs, education and food."

This is not a moral imperative; it's a survival imperative. Our failure to realize this is costing us our very lives.

I am confounded by Hedge's and Nader's apparent chagrin over noticing that people who are working hard for $7.25 an hour are not organizing. That $7.25 an hour barely covers housing, childcare, and transportation---all before even the mention of local, sustainable-much less healthy-food, or medical care, or energy options, or donations to Pacifica. What is voting for local independents going to do for Walmart workers? And, no, people making $7.25 an hour will not be running to South America. It IS about survival and it IS killing us.

You have done fairly well describing the problem--now what?

Hedges vastly overestimates the importance of his emotions, which occupy stage center in this narcissistic little aria. In fact, the feeling of young Hedges are of no consequence whatever.

Voting for democrats is important. We have already seen the Republican alternative. Its horrors are no illusion; they escalate with every new seizure of power. Any impediment to their destructive triumph is to be welcomed.

This is not a moral judgment. It is a tactical one. You do not have to believe in the Democratic Party to understand why the difference, slender as it is, is vital.

What is needed for real victory is struggle and a powerful mass movement aiming for social equality and ecnomic and political democracy.

Right now, this movement does not exist.

Until it does, all this yap about doing the superior thing is mere escapism.

Why is that so difficult to understand?

Corporate creep is clearly increasing. How many school districts have farmed out bussing, once a municipal responsibility, to private companies? And it won't stop there.

I think Blackwater and other private 'security firms' have been doing test-runs in Iraq and whatnot in preparation for replacing local police departments. Governments want this, because it alleviates them the liability of police brutality claims, costs, etc. And when that happens, America will indeed be a tyrannical police state.

We are dealing with a rachet mechanism. A rachet is remorseless, in that it will take all you give it and hold until you relax for a second and it will take another notch. You will wind up with nothing left to give. I can appreciate that voting for democrats will at least slow rate at which the corporatocracy takes away what we used to regard as our birthright as Americans. But as long as we deal with the rachet, we will lose. Problem is, I don't know how to NOT deal with the rachet.

Not voting is a self-indulgent cop out. Yes, you may feel better about yourself for not supporting the "corrupt" system, but you're abandoning the founding principles of this republic. And helping the corporations and paranoid conservatives strengthen their control.

And voting for the fringe liberal candidates (Green, Progressive, Nader, whatever) is a vote of futility. If the liberals who agree with this article would stop complaining and think about PRACTICAL solutions and consequences, the only option in 99% of the races is to support the Democrats.

Perhaps if the liberal/progressive voters were more reliable supporters of the Democratic Party, they could actually have some constructive influence to move the Party toward progressive policies. As it is, the Democrats have to pitch their appeal and policies to the middle "independent" voters to get elected, which dilutes progressive influence.

So, if you don't vote Democratic or don't vote at all, just how much real CHANGE can you expect --- NONE!

@18:54 — Anonymous, the founding principles of this country no longer apply. It is painfully clear that these principles have long been rendered archaic and impotent by the modern political status quo. This isn't 1776, the landscape has changed and morphed this nation into something it was never intended to be. To vote due to these pollyannaish principles is just as futile as voting for the fringe candidates you speak of.

As far as "practical solutions", how about just simply blowing up the world headquarters of various corporate giants in this country (after evacuation, of course), starting with anything on Wall Street? We do this and we immediately gash the jugular of Corporate America, to whom our government caters. Anarchist I'm certain, but do you really think we're actually heading toward a time in this country when conventional peaceful methods (voting) will change anything for the better? How's this for a proposed "real change"?

I agree with BEN, JOHNATHAN, ZAP, DON, a few Anon., and also the Green ANDY: the best way to work for democracy in a democracy is to vote, whether Green, Democratic, P&F, or...We have actually had an excellent field test of the Not Voting thesis: the 12-year Contract With America, known to non-Contracters as the Contract On America, not to mention the seating of Mr. GW Bush in the White House. No, we are not at this moment in history a very liberal nation, and I think that's a shame. It is not clear to me how not voting would move us in a more progressive direction. It is clear to me that voting matters, and that's what I intend to do.

Hedges and Nader just placed some things under a bright spotlight for me. But, as Sonja Johnson says "You can't change anyone but yourself." Each person who cares ALWAYS has the option of withdrawing from the systems s/he doesn't believe in. Many of us have the option of growing our own food thus cutting off the nails (or at least cutting into the profits of) of McDonald's, Wal-Mart, and KFC. You really can take public trans, ride bikes, consolidate errands and carpool if you're mad as hell at BP. We really can create intentional communities in which material wealth is shared and people find it less necessary to work at full-time, soul deadening jobs. Indeed, in many cases, corporations need us a lot more than we need them.

If we want change, we have to take the situation and ourselves seriously enough to accept the inconvenience and the hassle of removing our piece of the energetic pie from the systems we don't believe in. The only road to lasting and real change is if each of us (see Sonja Johnson, above) accepts full and unflinching self-responsibility for creating the world we want to live in-- even if that world only exists in your own home. This happens one person, and more importantly, one act, at a time.

You have it all wrong people.

There is no difference between Republicans and Democrats. If it favors the richest people in the country they will vote for it in a split second.The bank bailout of 2008, took them less than a week, they were all in favor and gave rich bankers 750 billion dollars of YOUR tax money, with no restrictions or accountability. They then proceeded to pocket it and you and your children will be paying for a long time. On the other hand a health care reform that should have taking your medical services out of the hands of useless insurance companies that contribute nothing to your health, but make it 30% more expensive ( they do need to make a profit after all) took almost a year and finally passed a useless bill that the only thing it does is force everybody now to pay the useless insurance companies so they can make their 30% profit. And these are just two examples.

The only slight difference between these guys is that when a Republican gets elected you know that he is going to screw you, and he does it very quickly, as our beloved George just demonstrated. Democrats on the other side pretend they are going to help you, but then turn around and screw you just like the Republicans did, only that in order to maintain the appearances they will do it very slowly, pretending it isn't happening or it is not their fault. I have yet to get one decent explanation from any Democrats of why George Bush could get EVERYTHING he wanted with 50 votes in the senate and a very slim advantage in the house, and Democrats can't get ANYTHING they tell me they are trying to get with 60% majorities in both chambers.

So what is the solution? Easy. If you are a middle class American you are going to become a poor American. It is just a matter of how fast this will happen. Democrats will make it slow and painful, Republicans will make it swift and painful. If you are lucky once it is over Americans will finally wake up, things will change, and your standard of living will improve again. If not you are going to be living in the largest third world country in the world. My advice is get it over with quickly. Vote for Sara and Glenn or anyone they support, they will trash this place in two years and from there you can only move up.

Go SARA!!

WE HOLD THE KEYS. yes, the oligarchy has won, they guard the gates, but we still hold the keys: one solid 3rd party that pulls the supermajority from both sides of the political seesaw that goes nowhere, and we escape their stranglehold. 1 party that speaks to basic human decency, like ending exploitation at home and abroad to secure jobs & country, eliminating corp welfare & the lobbyist's cash for laws program so the little guy once again has a chance.
 
3 things in our favor: 1. the plutocrats have overplayed their hand - it's now so obvious, even a teabagger can see it. their credibility is dead - they're done. 2. we now have a way to communicate directly w/ each other, the internet, bypassing their choice btwn tweedledumb vs tweedledick. also, 2 feet to reach round our own blocks & speak. 3. we outnumber them. eventually, using true representative democracy, we can overcome. we as a supermajority are 300 million, 95% vs. their puny 5%. and sadly for them, it is still 1 person, 1 vote. (eVoting machines another issue...)

let's call it the Rescue Party, cuz that's what we need to save us from this unchecked beast.

meantime, vote according to your conscience, but vote. apathy is justified, but a losing option. violence is never an option. and MARCH on October 2nd in DC with progressives/peace movement/unions/etc: http://www.onenationforpeace.org/
 

Vote for Democrats. There is a better and a worse. Look at the Supreme Court if you doubt that. Look at which party penalized BP and which apologized to BP. Look at who wants to extend the Bush tax cuts for fat cats so they can buy more elections (and, yes, it includes some Blue Dogs, who in the best of worlds would be sent packing by progressives). As long as you think in relative terms, which are the only ones available, you will make the logical decision to support the better option.

The people with the real power in the United States--a plutocracy--were never elected in the first place, which means they cannot be UN-elected. How people vote does not determine who wields power. The reason for not voting is to focus instead on figuring out what action must be taken that, unlike voting, CAN remove the plutocracy from power so that a genuine democracy can be created in our country. When we have a genuine democracy, then it will make sense to vote; not before then.

www.newdemocracyworld.org

Anyone here that doesn't think there is a difference between the dem and the repubs is delusional, get out and vote! Until we can elect our utopian congress critters, we need to keep control, and the only way to do that is to vote for the dems. Please people get out and VOTE!

As we now know, the Koch brothers helped get Nader on ballots. The far right corporate masters saw Nader as a weapon to be used against the Dems.

Also, the Citizens United SCOTUS case pitted the 5 conservatives against the 4 justices on the left. Had there been more appointments by Dems, the decision would have gone the other way.

Don't waste your vote; vote for Dems.

Mr. Hedges: I have long followed your work as a beacon of reason in an increasingly unreasonable world. When you say "Liberals" you sweep me up in that category, tho' I am a member of the "working class", to which you refer as victim of Liberal betrayal. You really need to do a better job of qualifying that term; which "Liberals" do you mean, exactly (names; I want names)? If you mean Neo-Liberals, you need to say Neo-Liberals; if you mean Blue Dogs, you don't mean "Liberals" at all. Maybe I'm a Progressive and I just haven't figured it out, yet; and maybe you wrote this one a little too fast?

The purpose of a pretty boy, educated, "liberal" like Obama (just like Kennedy, Carter, and Clinton before him) was to put the people to sleep. We and the rest of world were tired of Bush and extremely anger, especially after the precipitous and suspicious collapse of the economy a month and a half before the 2008 elections.   While we were all tired, our anger and the momentum of events would have driven us to continue to vigorously fight a McCain presidency, whether or not there were a crack down on civil liberties (beyond what Bush had already done).  Instead, as I and other predicted months before the elections, the people did in fact go to sleep once they shed their tears of joy on election night and booed Bush out of office on inauguration day.  We were entirely demobilized, which was the goal of the election.  We have once again elected a member of the two party ruling class consensus, squandering again our 10 minutes of democracy in the voting booth and giving them another 4 years to re-rig the game in their favor and against us.  So the game continues, we -- too ignorant to figure the math out -- get our 4 hours and 10 minutes of democracy over a century (25 elections with 10 minutes in the voting booth per election every 4 years) and they, the ruling class, gets the remaining 99 years, 364 days, 19 hours and 50 minutes to stack the system in the favor of corporate America, the US military, the global ruling class, and against everything the people need and at least say they believe in. Don't vote if you don't want to but, if you do vote, vote for someone who at least is telling you that they don't support imperialism and capitalism and the two-party ruling class consensus and the "American way" as we know it.   Nevertheless, I am certain that on election day 2012, the same voices -- the Nation, Noam Chomsky, Media Benjamin, and Chris Hedges (he said in his 3/1/10 piece "Ralph Nader was Right about Barack Obama" that he voted for Obama"), etc. will in 2012 all explain why once again we must squander our vote on some illusion, some delusion, some lie, some fraud, some charlatan, some ruling class back-slapping good old boy or (next up) good old girl Democrat or Republican.  Seriously start thinking about it now, well in advance.  Can you stomach the idea of voting for Obama again in 2012 or voting for Hillary Clinton or the next pretty boy/girl they will trot out and market to us? And then?  One year later, two years later we will again be lamenting our continuing imperialist crimes, the ruling classes pillage of our economy and the destruction of what once passed for a minimal social safety net.  I have not and will not ever give my vote to the lesser of two evils just so that I can participate in the great collective self-deception that this country's masses repeatedly engage in. I will always vote for someone who states clearly that they oppose the system and states clearly that they are anti-imperialist, anti-ruling class, etc.  And then, having done that, I will continue to fight the demon in its real manifestation, revealing its true ugly face (Nixon, Reagan, Bush 1, Bush 2, McCain, etc) and its anti-people values and rallying the people not only of this country but the world to oppose and fight them. We are not going to get out of this without a fight, and certainly we  are NEVER going to get out of it by voting for one half of the two-party ruling class consensus.   Think about it -- 4 hours and 10 minutes every century for us and 99 years, 364 days, 19 hours and 50 minutes for them.