“In 2008, in a piece you wrote, ‘Why am I a socialist?’ you wrote this: ‘The inability to articulate a viable socialism has been our gravest mistake,” host Paul Jay says to Truthdig columnist Chris Hedges during the latest installment of an interview on The Real News Network’s “Reality Inserts Itself.” He then asks: “Do you still believe that?”

Hedges responds: “Yes, because we have allowed ourselves to embrace an ideology which, at its core, states that all governance is about maximizing corporate profit at the expense of the citizenry. For what do we have structures of government, for what do we have institutions of state, if not to hold up all the citizenry, and especially the most vulnerable?”

Later in the interview, Hedges explains how the Occupy movement has been systematically crushed, and how the government is working to prevent such movements from rising again. He says the left bears fault for how weak mass movements have become in the country.

“The left has been destroyed, especially the radical left, quite consciously in the whole name of anti-communism, and the ‘Death of the Liberal Class’ really explains the destruction of those movements,” Hedges tells Jay.

“I’m saying that we have to hold–you have to hold fast to that moral imperative. So if you keep conceding–I mean, let’s look at what the liberal class has conceded to the Democratic Party,” he later adds. “The Democratic Party in Europe would be a far-right party. It’s pro-war, it’s anti-union, it’s anti-civil liberties. I mean, Obama’s assault on civil liberties is worse than Bush. It’s an enemy of the press. It’s used the Espionage Act to shut down whistle-blowers, which are the lifeblood of a free press. It has assassinated American citizens. I mean, and, you know, at what point do you say enough?”

Watch the interview below. Click here for a full transcript:

This is the fourth installment of a seven-part series featuring Hedges. Click on the links below to watch the other three parts.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

— Posted by Tracy Bloom.

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