wisewords
A Conversation with Jim Hightower
Acclaimed Columnist, Commentator and Populist
by Ellen Mahoney J
im Hightower, a syndicated colum- nist and national radio commenta- tor, is the bestselling author of Swim
Against the Current and Thieves in High Places. A former Texas agriculture commissioner, he’s spent some 30 years fighting for the rights of consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses and just plain folks. A favorite saying of his is, “The water won’t clear up until we get the hogs out of the creek.” Hightower is the 2009 recipient of the prestigious Puffin/Na- tion Prize for Creative Citizenship.
Why do you consider popu- lism the people’s rebellion against the corporate pow- ers-that-be and how do you define it?
Populists have historically understood that the real battle in America is not an ideological fight of conservative versus liberal. Rather, the battle is over money and power, and populists are engaged
in a fight against corporatists to create a democratization of both our govern- ment and our economy. Too few people control the money and power at the expense of the rest of us. In this country, populism began in
Texas in 1877, when farmers, who were going broke because of railroad mo- nopolies, realized they had to do some- thing about it. What began as a farmers’ movement quickly spread through- out the country. The movement later evolved into the People’s Party and had a powerful impact on women’s suffrage, the direct elections of senators, wage and hour laws and the nationalization of railroads and public resources. It was very progressive.
How is your work helping individuals to swim against the political currents, work for the common good and make a difference in their communities?
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Essentially, I consider myself a modern- day Johnny Appleseed, with a populist viewpoint. I try to inform people, rally them and help them see that they’re not alone, despite the power of the estab- lishment trying to teach them that the corporate way is the only way.
Why do you say that politics is more about top versus bottom than right versus left?
Right versus left is what we’re told poli- tics is all about—you’re either a con- servative or you’re a liberal. But those are tiny little boxes that few Americans fit within, and this ideology is what di- vides us in this country. Most of us are a mix of both. The real political spectrum is in fact, top to bottom, because that is [the paradigm] where most people live; most folks know they are way down in that top-to-bottom spectrum.
What do you mean when you encourage people to be agitators, much like a metaphor of the way a washing machine agitates the dirt out?
First of all, the powers that be try to make the term “agitator” seem pejorative. But, in fact, agitation is what America is all about. Agitators created America itself, first
with the Continental Congress, and then with the American Revolution. It was agi- tators who democratized The Declaration
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