Jim Hightower in Kennebunk Maine!!

[BREMPRO]

Heard him speak tonight in the "heart of the Bush family hornets nest". He was funny, wry, poignant, intelligent, inspiring. He made a few really good points:

You can get elected by focusing on personality and being wishy washy and not committing to issues, but you CAN"T THEN GOVERN, because you don't have a mandate on those issues from voters who elected you. Had a great anecdote about his experience with the pesticide industry while serving in the Texas house.- used an open public meeting to demonstrate the overwhelming public support for govt restrictions on use.

Don't listen to political consultants, they will not help you win. look what happened to GORE and KERRY. ("only thing in the middle of the road is the yellow line and and armadillos".- texas road kill i guess!) Campaign on what you believe in... with a progressive campaign-if you win, you can govern with progressive policy with a mandate from the voters.

The people in our country are more progressive than the corporate controlled media would have you believe- for instance polls show 75% of Americans want universal health care even if it means raising their taxes.

His comment about Tom Delay...."here's a guy you look at and say, a thousand sperm and you were the fastest?" That got a big laugh!

Slammed the DLC- "the corporate wing of the democratic party"

referred to Cheney as "buckshot" lol!


Pressed this point hard- I'm paraphrasing here...<" this is a vital moment in this country history that doesn't need armchair progressives, but aggressive agitators. It long past being nice and passive.. Rove & CO broke those rules.. get involved..stand up, speak out for what you believe in. agitate! be like the center piece of washing machine that gets the dirt out! The majority of the country is on your side. The corporate media won't do it for us. up to grass roots groundswell. [br />
also pressed the importance of local races- this is where the change will happen, from the ground up, not top down.}

He had some encouraging words about 06...His impression from his national travels for his new book "Thieves in High Places" is there is a palpable groundswell of anti-bush/republican sentiment from the grass roots and is showing up in the polls for senate and house races.

He stayed and answered questions from the audience, and was gracious, responsive and funny.

He was asked why he didn't use the word fascist to describe the bushites in his talk, and he said the word was too loaded with history and felt it wasn't necessary to get the point across about the lies, and corruption, and incompetence of this administration.

asked about 08 he first said i don't have any idea, but then later said of the possible candidates he's aware of Feingold and Edwards he felt would both campaign and govern with progressive values.

It was a fun and inspiring evening!




OCT 5th www.worldcantwait.org

[niyad]

1. thank you for sharing this with us. I have had the privilege of

hearing him speak twice now, and just love him. I have always thought of him, molly and ann as a very special trio of true texans.

[The_Casual_Observer]

2. I have heard Hightower on KPFK many times.

It's always a little disarming to hear someone with a down-south accent promoting progressive stuff in broadcast media in LA. Usually it's some fundie rw nutjob that gets the airtime.