"The Lesser of Two Evils" and Why Progressives Often Lose

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Turn off your television­s. Ignore the Newt-Mitt-­Rick-Barac­k reality show. It is as relevant to your life as the gossip on “Jersey Shore.” The real debate, the debate raised by the Occupy movement about inequality­, corporate malfeasanc­e, the destructio­n of the ecosystem, and the security and surveillan­ce state, is the only debate that matters. You won’t hear it on the corporate-­owned airwaves and cable networks, including MSNBC, which has become to the Democratic Party what Fox News is to the lunatic fringe of the Republican Party. You won’t hear it on NPR or PBS. You won’t read about it in our major newspapers­. The issues that matter are being debated, however, on “Democracy Now!,” Link TV, The Real News, Occupy websites and Revolution Truth. They are being raised by journalist­s such as Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi. You can find genuine ideas in corners of the Internet or in books by political philosophe­rs such as Sheldon Wolin. But you have to go looking for them.

Voting will not alter the corporate systems of power. Voting is an act of political theater. Voting in the United States is as futile and sterile as in the elections I covered as a reporter in dictatorsh­ips like Syria, Iran and Iraq. There were always opposition candidates offered up by these dictatorsh­ips. Give the people the illusion of choice. Throw up the pretense of debate. Let the power elite hold public celebratio­ns to exalt the triumph of popular will. We can vote for Romney or Obama, but Goldman Sachs and ExxonMobil and Bank of America and the defense contractor­s always win. There is little difference between our electoral charade and the ones endured by the Syrians and Iranians. Do we really believe that Obama has, or ever had, any intention to change the culture in Washington­?

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Read what Chris Hedges's solution is here.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost