"There's a New Sense of Possibility Among Progressives"
A Shepherd Q&A with populist writer Jim Hightower
[OBAMA IS] THE LEAST IMPORTANT PART OF THE OBAMA PHENOMENON. THE PHENOMENON IS WHAT'S IMPORTANT. MILLIONS OF PEOPLE ARE NEWLY INTO THE POLITICAL PROCESS OR ARE RE-ENERGIZED ABOUT THE POLITICAL PROCESS AND THEY ARE DOING THEIR DAMNEDEST TO SEE THAT CHANGE IS MORE THAN A POLITICAL BUZZWORD.
Writer and radio commentator Jim Hightower- dubbed "America's #1 populist"-is feeling pretty good these days. He's optimistic that Democratic Sen. Barack Obama will win the White House in November and, in doing so, will provide ways for his grassroots and netroots sup porters to become involved in governing.
The Austin, Tex.-based Hightower will be a featured speaker at Fighting Bob Fest on Sept. 6 in Baraboo, the annual progressive get-together that's worth a tank of gas to get to. In fact, Hightower was so impressed with Bob Fest that he included it in his lat est book, Swim Against the Current: Even a Dead Fish Can Go With the Flow. But if you want to get a true Hightower experience, check out his audiobook collection of radio commentaries, The People Are Revolting! (In the Very Best Sense of the Word).
In this Shepherd Q&A, Hightower talks about the campaign, why Obama is the least important part of the "Obama phenomenon" and the McCain's participation in the Republican "drill team."
Shepherd: What's on your mind these days?
Hightower: Well, the election, of course. And I'm feeling good about that. Based on my travels around the country people are really pumped up and I think we're going to have a massive turnout, bigger than pollsters can plumb. And more impor tantly, I find that folks are not merely eager to get Obama into the White House but to be a part of the gov erning process. To them the important day after Nov. 4 is Jan. 21, the day after the inauguration.
They're going to be all over him. As I've been saying to the groups that I speak to, Obama is only going to be as good as we make him. I think he has good, solid, pro gressive instincts and many progressive programs, but the lobbyists are going to be sitting there waiting on him. And we have to go into the White House with him to be a counterforce to the forces of reaction.
Shepherd: How will he manage his grassroots supporters when he's in office?
Hightower: One, he is deliberately set ting up a whole new channel into the White House, which is the netroots coming inside.
They-they being Obama himself and also [legal and cyberspace expert] Lawrence Lessig and others who are very active in the Internet side of the campaign-are very active in setting up a process of having those folks being directly involved in policy.
And not only in passing the programs Obama has in mind but staying on them once the programs are established. So my feeling is that he is setting up something that he won't be able to control. They will control it themselves.
And Obama felt the burst of heat-the sunburst of heat-from those people when he made the switch on his pledge not to give retroactive immunity to the telecoms.
Because they really were all over him. They lost that one. He did not take a stand. Technically he took a stand but voted for the bill that provided immunity. But he did have to say that when he's in the White House then he'll deal with it. These are not people who for get. They have logged on already.
But what really encourages me about the election is not Obama. He's the least important part of the Obama phenomenon. The phe nomenon is what's important.
Millions of people are newly into the political process or are re-energized about the political process and
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