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Hey, Democrats: Find the Party's Future in Its Populist Past by Jim Hightower
A farmer friend of mine once bemoaned the fact that the Democrat we'd both supported for president, Bill Clinton, was hugging up Wall Street and stiffing family farmers. "I don't mind losing when we lose," my friend said, "but I hate losing when we win."
Agreed. Yet, losing in politics is sometimes a prelude to winning, calling not for despair, but a doubling down on principle and organizing. Take the revolutionary presidential platform put forth by the upstart, unabashedly progressive People's Party in 1892. It was stunning in its little-d democratic boldness, directly challenging corporate power. The populists became the first to support an eight-hour day and minimum wage for labor, women's suffrage, graduated income taxes, government farm loans to bypass bank monopolies, veterans' pensions, direct lawmaking by citizen initiatives, etc.
Wall Street and the two-party duopoly soon conspired to crush the People's Party. But they could not stop its ideas, which grew in popular support and were largely enacted by state and national governments. This democratic reformation occurred because (1) the populists were unabashedly bold, (2) their ideas were solid, benefitting the common good, and (3) their political heirs were organized and persistent.
That same rebellious spirit remains at the heart and soul of today's people's politics. For example, while 2011's Occupy Wall Street uprising was autocratically crushed, resurgent labor progressives are now carrying its ideals forward — and winning! Likewise, America's scrappy democratic soul is being expressed every day by grassroots groups of rural poor people battling corporate polluters, child care workers struggling for decent pay, local people standing up to Silicon Valley arrogance and Wall Street greed, etc.
Americans are on the move against plutocratic and autocratic rule. They need a party to move with them.
WHAT SHOULD POLITICS DO? ASK WOODY GUTHRIE
Woody Guthrie's prescription for inequality in America was straightforward: "Rich folks got your money with politics. You can get it back with politics."
Agreed. Yet, losing in politics is sometimes a prelude to winning, calling not for despair, but a doubling down on principle and organizing. Take the revolutionary presidential platform put forth by the upstart, unabashedly progressive People's Party in 1892. It was stunning in its little-d democratic boldness, directly challenging corporate power. The populists became the first to support an eight-hour day and minimum wage for labor, women's suffrage, graduated income taxes, government farm loans to bypass bank monopolies, veterans' pensions, direct lawmaking by citizen initiatives, etc.
Wall Street and the two-party duopoly soon conspired to crush the People's Party. But they could not stop its ideas, which grew in popular support and were largely enacted by state and national governments. This democratic reformation occurred because (1) the populists were unabashedly bold, (2) their ideas were solid, benefitting the common good, and (3) their political heirs were organized and persistent.
That same rebellious spirit remains at the heart and soul of today's people's politics. For example, while 2011's Occupy Wall Street uprising was autocratically crushed, resurgent labor progressives are now carrying its ideals forward — and winning! Likewise, America's scrappy democratic soul is being expressed every day by grassroots groups of rural poor people battling corporate polluters, child care workers struggling for decent pay, local people standing up to Silicon Valley arrogance and Wall Street greed, etc.
Americans are on the move against plutocratic and autocratic rule. They need a party to move with them.
WHAT SHOULD POLITICS DO? ASK WOODY GUTHRIE
Woody Guthrie's prescription for inequality in America was straightforward: "Rich folks got your money with politics. You can get it back with politics."
[link:https://www.creators.com/read/jim-hightower|
13 replies
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In 2000, he joined with talk show host Phil Donahue and actress Susan Sarandon to co-chair the presidential campaign of Ralph Nader. He also appeared at Nader's "super-rallies" and stumped across the country for him.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Hightower
It's very simple: Hightower doesn't have the requisite judgement to be taken seriously.
He should take responsibility and apologize for helping to defeat the Democrat who won the Nobel Peace Prize for environmental activism and helping to elect the Republican who gave us the Iraq War, the Roberts Court, the appointment of Samuel Alito, the Citizens United Decision, and, ultimately, Dobbs.
is a question of judgement, not character.
Why on earth would Democrats take advice from somone who has little good to say about our Party, who delights in bashing Biden, and who managed the campaign of a third party spoiler in an election where stakes were so high and he was so wrong?
Jim Hightower was instrumental in putting Bush in the White House and two conservatives on the Supreme Court, including a Chief Justice.
It's not a question of character; it's a question of competence, of judgement, and of being able to see the big picture and anticipate the consequences. It's a question of both expertise and of political savvy. Jim Hightower falls short.
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Jim Hightower: Biden, the GOP and you: Who won the debt-ceiling fight?
During the big Washington showdown over the government’s debt ceiling, it looked possible for a brief moment that President Joe Biden might bully GOP leader U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy into hurting one of America’s most vulnerable minorities: The uber-rich.
Republicans were pushing hard to fix the government’s financing crunch by imposing vindictive new work requirements that would cut off benefits for older, low-income Americans who need Medicaid and food stamps to get by. Democrats had denounced the cruelty and rank unfairness of punishing the poor, while requiring nothing from millionaires and billionaires.
Biden twitted McCarthy with the threat of putting some of the burden on the privileged — before backing away from democratic principle, jovially assuring Kevin that he was just pulling his leg.
During the big Washington showdown over the government’s debt ceiling, it looked possible for a brief moment that President Joe Biden might bully GOP leader U.S. Rep. Kevin McCarthy into hurting one of America’s most vulnerable minorities: The uber-rich.
Republicans were pushing hard to fix the government’s financing crunch by imposing vindictive new work requirements that would cut off benefits for older, low-income Americans who need Medicaid and food stamps to get by. Democrats had denounced the cruelty and rank unfairness of punishing the poor, while requiring nothing from millionaires and billionaires.
Biden twitted McCarthy with the threat of putting some of the burden on the privileged — before backing away from democratic principle, jovially assuring Kevin that he was just pulling his leg.
https://www.joplinglobe.com/opinion/jim-hightower-biden-the-gop-and-you-who-won-the-debt-ceiling-fight/article_fd8f60fe-04b5-11ee-ac6f-3f6226d03b5e.html
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It’s HOT… and Joe Biden Has a Website for That!
Luckily Joe Biden has issued bold new steps to counter the relentless climate change that’s causing this extreme, killer heat. For example, workers will get “hazard alerts” telling them it’s hot. Also, a new website will urge everyone to stay hydrated. His aides say this shows that Joe is treating climate change with “the urgency it deserves.”
Excuse me while I have a political heat stroke. Urgency? The same day Biden launched his pathetic global warming “policy,” the Republican Supreme Court rubber stamped his disastrous push for the massively-polluting Mountain Valley Pipeline.
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Worse, Biden has meekly refused to take the genuinely bold step of declaring a climate emergency, even as he’s pushed new laws to remove the people’s right to challenge corporate profiteering at the expense of climate sanity.
Luckily Joe Biden has issued bold new steps to counter the relentless climate change that’s causing this extreme, killer heat. For example, workers will get “hazard alerts” telling them it’s hot. Also, a new website will urge everyone to stay hydrated. His aides say this shows that Joe is treating climate change with “the urgency it deserves.”
Excuse me while I have a political heat stroke. Urgency? The same day Biden launched his pathetic global warming “policy,” the Republican Supreme Court rubber stamped his disastrous push for the massively-polluting Mountain Valley Pipeline.
snip----------------------------------------------
Worse, Biden has meekly refused to take the genuinely bold step of declaring a climate emergency, even as he’s pushed new laws to remove the people’s right to challenge corporate profiteering at the expense of climate sanity.
https://jimhightower.substack.com/p/its-hot-and-joe-biden-has-a-website
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Glad I could clear that up for you!
Insulting Hightower
TY!
Of making ridiculous claims, like how Democrats are 'beholden' to corporations, or that Occupy Wall Street was a valid political action. I'm not saying what they stood for was entirely stupid, only their way of going about dealing with it was so stupid that it was almost MAGA level useless. Because it was, and here he is peddling the same stupid, after a long history of peddling similar stupid.
Nonsense like this from liberals bent on trashing Democrats is why we can't have nice things.
had her hand in getting TSF in the WH and spreading Fascism across America.
That's NOT POOGRESSIVE.. That's Regressive.
