we no longer live in a functioning democracy. 
self-styled liberals and progressives, as they do in every election cycle, 
are urging us to vote for the democrats, 
although the democratic party in europe would be classified as a right-wing party, 
and tell us to begin to build progressive movements the day after the election. 
only no one ever builds these movements. 
the democratic party knows there is no price to pay for selling us out 
and its abject service to corporations. 
it knows the left and liberals become supplicants in every election cycle. 
and this is why the democratic party drifts further and further to the right 
and we become more and more irrelevant. 
if you stand for something, you have to be willing to fight for it. 
but there is no fight in us.

chris hedges
truthdig, mon. nov. 5