August 4, 2004

BuzzFlash Interviews the Voice of the OTHER Texas -- Jim Hightower
...Yes, Lone Star State Populism Lives On!

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

I think, deep down, Karl [Rove] is the one who's worried right now. How could he not be? You've got a low approval rating for a sitting president. You've got a record deficit, lagging job growth, abysmal income numbers for American workers, and a war machine spiraling out of control. Nearly every objective indicator you can examine looks terrible. You can put lipstick on a hog, but, in the end, would you want to kiss one? -- Jim Hightower

If there ever were a person who should know about the evil of the Bush Cartel, it's the indefatigable Texas populist, Jim Hightower. Hightower had a bright political future in Lone Star State politics until Karl Rove teamed up with a rogue FBI agent to sabotage Jim's career. Yes, Rove abused government powers to derail Hightower. By now, we all know the modus operandi of Bush's Machiavelli, but Hightower was one of Rove's first big-time victims -- and he never saw it coming.

Maybe that's why Hightower has a photo of Bush with devil's horns on the cover of his new book, Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush. But it isn't a book about the injustice done to Hightower; rather it's a well-argued chronicle about the injustices done to us.

As Hightower notes: "They're insane. They're zealots totally dedicated to implementing their plutocratic, autocratic, militaristic, and imperialistic vision of America -- and it's time we stopped beating around the Bush about it."

Jim Hightower is one of America's great progressives, a barnburner of a speaker and a rabble-rousing radio commentator. He's a damn good writer to boot, as this book makes clear.

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BuzzFlash: Recently a husband and wife were arrested, handcuffed and removed from a taxpayer-funded Presidential event in West Virginia because they were wearing anti-Bush T-shirts. You have a section in your book about "BushZones." Isn't the practice of excluding dissenters from publicly-funded events kind of Sovietesque?

Hightower: As they say in Moscow, "Da." The offending T-shirts declared: "Love America, Hate Bush." These folks, Jeff and Nicole Rank, had proper tickets to the event, they proudly sang the National Anthem with everyone else, they were in no way disorderly -- but they were not politically correct, so they were summarily arrested, taken to jail, finger printed...and charged with "trespassing." Others who were there wearing pro-Bush T-shirts and Bush campaign paraphernalia at this public event on public property were not arrested.

It seems that the Bushites define "trespassers" by their political beliefs. What's worse is that Nicole, who worked for the Federal Emergency Management Agency in Charleston, was promptly told that her services were no longer required. Technically, she wasn't fired, but she was "released" from her job and not reassigned -- meaning she no longer gets paid. The good news is that this is STILL America, and Nicole and Jeff are not bowing to King George. Despite the financial hardship, they're fighting Bush's absurd, un-American assault on their constitutional right to dissent. They're not the only ones being denied their right to speak out -- dissenters all across America are being treated like this.

BuzzFlash: Speaking of civil liberties, you have a bit to say in your book about Mr. Ashcroft. Is he acting like an Attorney General or a Commissar?

Hightower: I dare say that Bush's attorney general is acting like an extremist sicko. Like a demented street preacher whacking his Bible and shouting damnations at libertines, Ashcroft seems to hate America's liberties.

This is the guy who crudely threw a blue burka over the justice department's "Spirit of Justice" art deco statue shortly after he took office. This is the guy who rammed through the decidedly unpatriotic "USA Patriot Act" just days after September 11th, erasing essential elements of our First and Fourth Amendments. This is the guy who decreed that the FBI can resume spying on our churches and political groups. This is the guy who has instructed agency heads to deny We the People access to information under right-to-know laws. This is the guy who has ordered prosecutors to seek executions in every case where the death penalty is available, even when local authorities don't think it's warranted. Now he's looking for ways to suspend the November elections -- further proof that we need to get the Bushites out.

BuzzFlash: True to your populist roots, you devote quite a bit of Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush to how the Bush administration is shafting the American hourly wage earner. How can anyone earning less than $60,000 a year even think of voting for Bush?

Hightower: What's wrong with you people? Don't you know that the economy is humming, that our very own president has declared "mission accomplished" on his promise of prosperity, that the stock market is up by 40 percent over last year, that jobs are cropping up like crabgrass, that the bluebird of happiness is officially singing everywhere across our land, and that you should be grateful, for godssake?

If you listen to the Republican politicians, corporate economists, and the media barons, that's what you'll hear. And that's the problem. People hear so much baloney from these jokers that they think their own high-wage job or tax-cut windfall must be just around the corner, if only they keep the faith. Meanwhile, they face such real-life pocketbook indicators as jobs that only pay poverty wages, gasoline topping $2 a gallon, milk at $4.43 a gallon, health-care costs rising three times faster than wages, and 401K's being shrunk to 1K's.

Democrats, in recent years, haven't helped themselves any. They've been almost as guilty as Republicans, supporting NAFTA, corporate welfare, turning a blind eye to 401K fraud. Fortunately, the Dems have been scared back to progressivism, and it looks like we'll have a clear choice come November.

BuzzFlash: Your first chapter is on "Global Warming," yet that's kind of been lost as a national campaign issue. As you point out, Bush has been a disaster to the environment. How come this isn't getting more prominence?

Hightower: Because it doesn't translate well to TV. We need death and destruction to get our attention. Show me a deformed baby. Give me an environmental disaster. That will get people's attention. Until then, we'll have our hands full worrying about hanging on to our meager jobs or paying our medical bills. That's a more immediate concern.

BuzzFlash: You're kind of the Texas Anti-Bush. Has he done to America what he did to Texas?

Hightower: You can look at Bush's time in Texas as a test run. Tax cuts for the wealthy, corporate welfare, environmental rape, regulatory prostitution, bankrupting our public treasury, gutting our public education and health systems -- we've seen it all here, and it's like déjà vu all over again.

BuzzFlash: What does "rugged individualism" mean in terms of ACTUAL Bush policies?

Hightower: Caveat emptor. I got mine, you get yours. Never give a sucker an even break. "Adios, chump!" is more like it.

BuzzFlash: You have a section called "heroes." Who are some present-day heroes in America?

Hightower: I've recently become a fan of Jim Sinegal, the CEO of Costco. I know CEOs are hardly sympathetic characters these days, and I do my share of bashing them. But here's a guy who could teach corporate America a thing or two. He takes a shockingly heretical view of his job, paying workers well above the industry average (read "Wal-Mart"). A full-time Costco clerk or warehouse worker earns more than $41,000 a year, plus getting terrific health-care coverage.

Wal-Mart workers get barely a third of that pay, plus a lousy health-care plan. Costco even has unions! The bottom line is that Costco workers feel valued, which adds enormously to their productivity and lowers employee turnover. And even though Wal-Mart makes twice as much profit as Costco, Sinegal believes it's better business to make a nice profit, but not a killing, and to invest more in Costco's 92,000 workers -- Wall Street analysts be damned!

BuzzFlash: Your old nemesis, Karl Rove, has been kind of quiet lately. Should we be worried?

Hightower: I think, deep down, Karl is the one who's worried right now. How could he not be? You've got a low approval rating for a sitting president. You've got a record deficit, lagging job growth, abysmal income numbers for American workers, and a war machine spiraling out of control. Nearly every objective indicator you can examine looks terrible. You can put lipstick on a hog, but, in the end, would you want to kiss one?

BuzzFlash: This isn't in your book, but it always fascinates us. You live in Austin. It's a liberal, progressive town that's also home to perhaps the most wigged-out right-wing state government in the United States. How do you all get along down there?

Hightower: We have a slogan here in Texas that says, "It's like a whole other country." And it is. Texas is big and bold, and aside from being born and raised here and having friends and family here, I love the proud, agitating spirit of Texans. The Populist movement got its start here in Texas, right up the road in Lampasas. Austin itself is a progressive oasis in the middle of the beautiful Texas Hill Country. The relaxed, fun-loving atmosphere and the warm climate are hard to beat. I've lived in New York and Washington, DC, and I've traveled to just about every place in America that has a zip code, and I've come to realize that Austin is about as good as it gets. Fortunately -- and to answer your question more directly -- we get along because we have plenty of space.

BuzzFlash: Finally, what happened to the sense of community that used to bring Americans together? Bush is the ultimate divider, trying to make America into a Christian paradise for the wealthy. Where did we make the wrong turn?

Hightower: In trying to make America into a "Christian" paradise for the wealthy, he's done an amazing thing -- he's united everyone else against him. If only we could get the rest of the global citizenry to vote in our election this November.

But I go back to something I've been saying for years now -- we (meaning the Democrats) went wrong when we stopped being Democrats and ceased to offer working men and women a real voice in government to address their concerns.

A BUZZFLASH INTERVIEW

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Get Your Copy of Let's Stop Beating Around the Bush from BuzzFlash.com.
You can learn more about Jim Hightower at:  http://www.jimhightower.com