Jim Hightower, Raising Hell

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Jim Hightower, Raising Hell

By Jonathan Rowe, YES! Magazine. Posted August 20, 2008.

The Texas populist's new book shows how ordinary Americans can in fact make a difference, and have.



There is something to be said for writing in a hostile political environment. You can't coast on prevailing opinion. You have to use your wits.

This is one reason Texas has produced some of the most arresting progressive voices of the last generation. Working against the state's Rightward flow, they have harkened to its populist tradition. They are funny and a little outrageous. They have swagger, and tell stories.

The late Molly Ivins was an exemplar. So too is Jim Hightower, who followed Ivins at the Texas Observer (what a run) and like her is a high-spirited practitioner of the art of givin' em hell.

Hightower grew up in Texas. He served two terms as the elected state commissioner of agriculture. (He was unseated in a campaign run by Karl Rove.) Now he's a radio commentator and syndicated columnist, with a knack for the backcountry zingers that cut the big shots down to size. "If ignorance ever goes over forty dollars a barrel," he has said, "I want drilling rights to George Bush's head."

Most of Hightower's work has aimed at corporate miscreants and their enablers in high places. Now, in Swim Against the Current, he's writing (with his partner Susan DeMarco) about Americans who are bucking the system and making a difference. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/workplace/93748/jim_hightower%2C_raising_hell_/

[NoFederales]

1. Ghandi paraphrase: Be the change you desire. nt

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