Hedges: Politicians are irrelevant

Briahna Joy Gray asks Hedges to weigh in on AOC being criticized for not supporting the NY Amazon union up front via her huge Twitter following. He responds that Pelosi and the Dem establishment have laid out for her the limits they'll accept for her behavior if she wants to keep her job. So AOC has decided she wants to keep her job. It's unreasonable of us to expect anything more of a politician. Real change comes not from politicians but from activist movements.

He really has me thinking about it. That our political system is so corrupt that it really doesn't matter if we elect progressives or not, since they too will be co-opted by it and never enact the sort of progressive agenda we the people want. It's entirely up to us to get active and organize in the millions, take to the streets, protest until the news can't help but cover it. Only then will politicians ever listen. And then respond, half-hardheartedly at best and again only to preserve their jobs until we keep up the public protest and demand even more of them to stir their sole motivation.  

PS: I still think we must elect progressives, as we are up against fascism. And progs are the only ones who can be motivated by our mass movements, for fascists don't care. So elect them but don't expect them to do much unless we continually force them to by our own involvement and action.