The people are demoralized; most of the States have been compelled to isolate the voters at the polling places to prevent universal intimidation and bribery. The newspapers are largely subsidized or muzzled, public opinion silenced, business prostrated, homes covered with mortgages, labor impoverished, and the land concentrating in the hands of capitalists. The urban workmen are denied the right to organize for self-protection, imported pauperized labor beats down their wages, a hireling standing army, unrecognized by our laws, is established to shoot them down, and they are rapidly degenerating into European conditions.
Here is an excerpt from a 1892 speech regarding The Populist Party Platform. In the context of this paragraph, what does the word prostrated mean?
A) to strengthen
B) to lay flat on the ground
C) to regain health and vitality
D) to reduce to helplessness; to overthrow