 "Photo: Courtesy of Jim Hightower")
Jim Hightower, 58, is a rabblerouser. The Denison-born Texan began his career as a legislative aide in Washington, D.C., before returning to the Lone Star State to serve as editor of the feisty biweekly political publication the Texas Observer. He then served two terms as Texas' agriculture commissioner, fighting for farmers and serving as a thorn in the side of big agribusiness, before becoming a career populist in the 1990s. Today, the anticorporate, grassroots hero Hightower publishes a monthly independent newspaper, The Hightower Lowdown, as well as writing a popular syndicated column, serving as a radio commentator and giving speeches across the country. His latest book, "Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow," profiles more than 50 individuals and organizations that generate social and environmental change from the bottom up. The Daily Texan spoke with Hightower from his Austin office.
The Daily Texan: Why did you think now was the right time to do a book like "Swim Against the Current?"
Jim Hightower: Because in this sort of dark period of the Bushites, we wanted people to know that there is great hope for America at the grassroots level. When you look at what's happening in Washington and what Wall Street is doing to us, you can get very depressed. But if you travel out, you encounter all these ordinary folks who are doing the most extraordinary things in business, politics, health care, banking, the food economy, religion - so many different areas of our lives. Oscar Wilde said, "Be yourself, everyone else is already taken," and the good news at the countryside level is that people are acting in that spirit, defying the corporate order and living their progressive values, doing good and doing well. So this is not the message that the powers that be give to us about our country. So we thought, well, let's that least tell some of these stories in the book.
DT: Are you ever concerned that too much journalism and writing from a liberal perspective gets mired in criticism and cynicism?
JH: Definitely. It's not enough to just criticize what's going on. You have to offer people hope and let them see some victories if you're going to have a movement. It can't survive on criticism. So we deliberately wanted to put these stories out there, so people can see that change is possible, that it's more than just a political buzzword this year.
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