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Over my years as a political agitator, a special joy has been getting to know and learn from so many other practitioners of the agitating arts who dare to stand up to moneyed elites. Yes, if you push for a little more fairness and democracy in our “Land of the Free” you will certainly be labeled an agitator. But so what? Wear that proudly, for mavericks and agitators are the ones who’ve advanced America’s democratic possibilities. As Jesse Jackson put it, “the agitator is the center-post in the washing machine that gets the dirt out.” Indeed, it’s those everyday people who do the hard travelling and heavy lifting to produce grassroots change. For an exemplary model, consider the life of Dolores Huerta. This jewel of a human being died last week after 96 years in the field, inspiring, organizing, and mobilizing supposedly powerless, mostly-impoverished people. I got to know and occasionally work in her shadow as she crisscrossed the country again and again, organizing farmworkers, immigrants, women, outcasts, and others who’ve been knocked down, held back, and routinely-abused by a morally-corrupt power structure. Astonishingly, despite political disappointments, repeated arrests, brutal beatings by corporate thugs, and devastating personal abuse – she never lost her deep belief that an organized, focused, people’s movement will prevail. Si se puede was her inspiring mantra: “Yes we can do it!” She was a momentous labor leader and progressive icon, but for me she remains a touchstone for those seeking a life of grassroots agitation. You don’t need to become Dolores Huerta, but see if you can find her spirit inside you. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Inequality in America doesn’t just “happen” – it’s deliberately created by the self-serving actions of corporate powers and political autocrats. You might have noticed, for example that your health care costs keep rocketing into the stratosphere. This has left millions of our families with no medical coverage at all, and most of the rest of us are struggling to pay ever-higher prices to insurance giants for ever-worsening coverage. Lately, even those whose employers provide health insurance, are being socked by their companies’ top executives – who, by the way, get platinum-level medical coverage paid by the company. Steadily and stealthily, though, the bosses have been making rank-and-file workers pay for health benefits, which are considered part of the pay they earn. This pick-pocketing was modest at first, but it’s now major thievery, taking an average of $7,500 a year from each employee’s paycheck. Well, bark corporate apologists, that’s just the natural working of the free market system. Excuse me, but my family’s health is not a market, and there’s nothing “natural” about inequality being foisted on working families by corporate elites. Speaking of unnatural, take a look at Mark Zuckerberg, the wonky-zonky gabillionaire chief of Meta, Inc. An infamous profiteer at the expense of communities and workers, Mark has become so royally rich that he would owe billions in a proposed California wealth tax. No problem though – elites at the top take care of themselves, so Zuck just had Meta rig its entire stock structure so his new tax obligation would cost him zero! So billionaire bosses keep pampering themselves by rigging their own corporate rules while robbing their employees’ paychecks. And that, boys and girls, is how the widening inequality gap between the rich and rest of us happens. Do something! * Over at Inequality.org, they cover the multitude of issues surrounding pay inequality, and have an action center around CEO pay loaded with information. * There are also rich people who believe in paying their fair share, and are actually advocating for it! Check out patrioticmillionaires.org. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

There’s a hunter’s nightmare in which a group of them flush some rabbits out of the brush. But rather than scampering away, the furry bunnies turn toward their stalkers. “Run,” shouts one of the hunters. “Run for your life – the rabbits have guns!” Arming animals would make the sport of hunting a bit more sporting, wouldn’t it? Well, what if we did give all wildlife a fighting chance against the destructive firepower of profiteers who so carelessly ravage their habitats and kill them off? Of course, we can’t arm nature with guns, but we could recognize that other species and ecosystems are living creatures with intrinsic legal rights to exist and flourish, thus giving nature its day in court to defend its well-being. Like us humans, the lakes, forests, wildlife, etc. could have legal status to sue and be represented by lawyers to protect themselves from mindless exploitation, injury, and death. This Rights-of-Nature concept is already being applied in such countries as Ecuador and New Zealand – and more than three dozen US cities and towns have passed ordinances acknowledging that various natural resources in their areas have inherent rights to take polluters and other despoilers to court. Ironically, the corporate powers – who have perverted law, logic, and nature to have their lifeless, profiteering entities declared “persons” – are aghast that Mother Nature can have rights that can counter the corporate claim that their right to profit is absolute. At its core, the Rights-of-Nature movement is asserting the obvious: Earth’s biosphere is not a free candy store for our taking. We are one with the natural world and must find ways to cooperate fully with it for our own survival. To learn more and connect to action, go to the Community Environmental Legal Defense Fund: www.celdf.org. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

E-I-E-I-O! If Republican agriculture policy was a crop, farmers would plow it under. Why? Because it’s worthless. Worse than worthless, GOP policy: 1) bilks taxpayers to pay billions of dollars a year to bail out the biggest corporate farms; 2) it forces productive family farmers out of business by intentionally eliminating their markets; and 3) it rips-off consumers by letting food conglomerates gouge us with monopolistic price hikes. Consider Trump’s ideological tariff nonsense. It has needlessly shut off multibillion-dollar markets that America’s farmers count on, while simultaneously jacking up the price they must pay for essentials like fertilizer and diesel fuel. The Republican tariff war has crushed farm income, leading the GOP’s once proud “free market” lawmakers racing to rebrand themselves as Big Business Socialists. So far this year, they have handed out $55 billion in crop welfare payments, with trainloads of that going to the biggest agribusiness operators. Of course, Trumpers don’t really care about saving farmers, but saving their own political hides. Notice that while they’re doling out government welfare checks to Big Ag, they’re coldly dismissing the real pain of workaday families who’re being knocked flat by skyrocketing food prices. Meanwhile, Trump himself admits his agbiz giveaways are just partisan politics. Campaigning in Kansas for Roger Marshall, one of his sycophantish congress critters, he promised to enact another subsidy for the region’s corn farmers. BUT ONLY if Kansans re-elect Marshall next week. If the people choose the Democratic contender, Potentate Trump says: “I’m not doing it.” There you have it: Farm vote bribery, another example of the current GOP Kakistocracy – government by the very worst people in society. Do something! If you’re mad as hell about Big Ag’s exploitation of, well, just about everything to do with farming, here are some groups to follow and support: * Kansas Farmer’s Union: Executive Director Nick Levendofsky is one of our favorite people to watch for both political insights and biting commentary. KFU works to protect family farmers, ranchers and their communities through policy, education and activism. * Environmental Working Group maintains a database of farm subsidies and publishes indispensable research on all kinds of farming issues. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

We’re being told that an earth-shaking, transformative age of “generative artificial intelligence” is already upon us. We’re told not to worry though, just accept it, because an elite clique of über-smart, über-rich tech barons have our backs. These Big Thinking Visionaries, we’re told, are already devising plans to shape humanity’s new future. But wait – who’s telling us all this? Why the barons themselves! Yes, the same self-enriching Silicon Valley hucksters who have unleashed this invasive digital force on our world, now say they are planning to “save humanity.” How? By remaking our economy, laws, social systems, etc. to fit their new AI structure World Order. Excuse me, but have any of those barons asked if you want to go there? I’ve not been consulted by them, have you? When did We The People elect such egomaniacal, anti-social, profiteering billionaires as Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg, Altman, and Huang to decide humanity’s future? If you want to see their idea of a technocratic social order, visit one of Bezos’ hellish Amazon warehouses that has made him so royally rich. Or ask locals how Elon rampages autocratically over their communities, resources, homes, and rights. No need to imagine what autocracy they might impose over us – just note that the trillion-dollar tech empires they already run routinely assert corporate property rights over all human rights, and how their lobbyists routinely rush to outlaw any public interference with the rapid spread of AI’s economic, environmental, and social greed. These billionaire geniuses don’t want to save us from AI dominance, they’re trying to stampede us into their “kakistocracy.” What’s that? Government by the very worst people in society. Do something! To keep fighting Big Tech, check out the Athena Coalition, an organization of dozens of local and national groups who are “coming together to create an economy where everyone can thrive, safeguard our planet, and protect our democracy.” We can get with that! athenaforall.org Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

You probably won’t believe this, boys and girls, but there was a time when government regulatory officials believed it was their public duty to – get this – serve the public! How? By enforcing laws intended to protect consumers, workers, the environment and other targets of raw corporate greed. Today, though, far-right plutocrats behind Trump’s Project 2025 have turned our national protection agencies into private escort services for corporate predators. Consider the monopolistic airline giants that have made price gouging and passenger abuse their normal business practice. It got so bad the Transportation Department finally mandated a handful of minimal reforms a few years ago. How minimal? The rules included such basic stuff as requiring airlines to tell customers the actual price of their ticket up front – no hidden fees. And requiring airlines to compensate customers if corporate mismanagement causes their flight to be disrupted. Also, making airlines liable for damages they do to wheelchairs of disabled passengers. Any honest business would already be doing such things as a matter of personal integrity, but Sean Duffy has now screeches that corporate integrity is none of the public’s business. Who is Duffy? A run-of-the-mill laissez-faire extremist, former Republican Congressman, MTV reality show personality – and former Washington lobbyist for a firm representing the Big Three Airlines! He’s now ensconced as Transportation Secretary in Trump’s cabinet, where he is pushing a sweeping agenda to repeal consumer protections. His agenda reads like a wish list put forth by the airline executives he had lobbied for. If this seems like profiteering corporate elites are making public rules to serve their own selfishness… Bingo! To keep tabs on their corporate thievery, go to TheRevolvingDoorProject.org. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Years ago, a Texas lawmaker got caught using his official position to enrich himself by taking money from special interests, in exchange for voting their way. The culprit did not deem this as corrupt, but just the normal ethic of an enterprising business transaction: “I seen my chances,” he explained, “and I took ‘em.” This is the Clarence Thomas code-of-ethics. As has been widely reported, this Supreme Court judge (who reliably rules for corporate supremacy over the people’s interests) has secretly been on the take for years from a billionaire corporate right-winger. Real estate tycoon Harlan Crow, an extremist activist for plutocratic government, has been lavishing millions of dollars’ worth of luxury vacations, private jet travel, family housing and educational payments, and other gratuities on Thomas. Yet, this supposedly-supreme lawyer says he detected no whiff of bribery, nor did he see any need to inform us commoners of it. He simply seen his chances and took ’em. But Thomas knew damn well that it was improper, corrupting, and disgusting. After all, during the last three decades, he has consistently voted for court rulings to make such obvious graft legal. For example, he has voted again and again to drain common sense from our anti-corruption laws, declaring that it is legal for a corporation to keep a public official on private retainer, that it’s okay for political officials to sell access to their offices, that the “appearance of corruption” is not corrupt – and, directly relevant to Harlan Crow, Thomas voted that it is technically not bribery to try influencing public officials by bestowing a series of gifts to them over time. If it seems to you like the system is rigged to favor the powerful, there you have it. Thomas is both the rigger and the beneficiary of the system. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

When corporations try to bamboozle us commoners, they fire three levels of deceit at us. First comes their basic lies… then they escalate to a barrage of damn lies… and finally they resort to their nuclear option: A PR campaign. The high-tech profiteers of artificial intelligence and political enablers are now going nuclear. Grassroots Americans didn’t swallow Silicon Valley’s opening deceit that AI data centers would be a bonanza for local communities. And when the billionaires escalated their land-water-and-power grab by assailing opponents as luddites and political extremists, people of all political stripes erupted in open rebellion against the self-serving arrogance of Musk, Bezos, Zuckerberg and other tone-deaf AI autocrats. So now comes their PR onslaught. AI’s moneyed powers—desperate to control government policy, the media message and then public debate—are now dumping untold billions into mass market propaganda, portraying AI as somewhere between benignly beneficial and endearingly human. Multitrillion-dollar tech goliath Google, for example, is producing movies and streaming a series of microdramas depicting AI generally (and Google specifically) as a source of loving comfort and human connection in an alien future. And, gosh, not only do their novellas tell sweet tales of artificial love as though it’s real, but Google’s technology allows viewers to “interact” with the AI movie characters. Google’s maestros of deceit assure us that the intent of their recent rush of movies about AI is merely to tell the story about this dazzling technology “authentically.” Authentic? I was born at night, but not last night! A trillion-dollar profiteering behemoth peddling the razzle-dazzle robotic future is hardly to be trusted as an unbiased source. Google’s movies are pure PR propaganda trying to authenticate its own profiteering scheme. Do something! Hate how artificial intelligence is being wielded in the creative arts? Check out the Human Artistry Campaign, a coalition of ~200 unions and artist organizations who are working to make sure technology never replaces human expression and creativity. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Warning: This is a sob story that might bring you to tears. Or make you upchuck in disgust. It’s about hogs – both the four-legged species and the more piggish, two-legged breed of agribusiness executives. The latter have long profited from cruel abuse of millions of hogs caged in their monopolistic system, and now the agbiz giants have launched a lobbying campaign called SOB – “Save Our Bacon.” It’s not a plea to save the abused animals, but to save the abusers’ profits! It turns out that most consumers don’t like animal abuse, so states are passing laws to prevent such corporate practices. This has led to a vibrant new market for humanely-raised pork, already gaining more than a fourth of national pork sales. “Ouch,” squealed the factory farm giants, feeling the pinch of real competition. Rather than clean up their methods, though, the monopolists have raced to Washington, demanding that Congress “save their bacon” by artificially and autocratically rigging the market. Their Save-Our-Bacon act would usurp states’ rights to set their own standards for animal welfare. This is not an “academic free market issue.” In recent state ballot initiatives, voters have overwhelmingly endorsed ethical standards for animal agriculture. Moreover, responsible family farm producers have quickly responded to this growing new market, upgrading their facilities to meet the new state standards of humane production. Yet, rather than embracing this success for animals, farmers, and consumers – here come tiny cliques of corporate profiteers like the National Pork Producers Council. They’re wielding their Big Money lobbying muscle, trying to overrule the public interest… and the political will of America’s majority. Which side is your member of Congress on? For information, go to Compassion In World Farming: ciwf.org. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

I’ve got to hand it to Washington’s Republican policy makers. They’ve come up with a truly remarkable way that, they promise, will vastly expand the number of small businesses in America. Great! This is personal for me, for I grew up in a family that had a Main Street business in small-town Texas, so I know how hard it is for little guys to battle the raw monopoly power of corporate chains. Thus, I cheered the GOP… until I learned that their small business proposal is just another big business scam. Far from actually increasing the number of small enterprises, Trump bureaucrats are merely redefining “small” to include BIG. For example, the Small Business Administration has long categorized a business small if it had less than $25 million in yearly sales. But they’ve now jacked that definition up by 1,000 percent! Indeed, even some billion-dollar giants can now – HOCUS POCUS – qualify as small. This is much worse than a statistical ruse, for it means that very large outfits with Wall Street backing, Washington lobbyists, and slick corporate lawyers will suddenly take the grants, contracts, and other government benefits intended to advance genuine Main Street innovators and competitors. In short, the GOP’s cynical scheme is using the small business label to overpower those very enterprises. It’s a deliberate rigging of the rules by today’s right-wing government officials to help big business grab public money – increasing the power of corporate elites to eliminate competitors… and further monopolize our economy. Remember this deceit when Republican congress critters run corporate-financed election ads this fall claiming to “looove” small business. Yeah… love it to death. Do something! The SBA has extended the deadline for public comment on the proposed rule changes to November 20, 2026. You can read the proposed rules and then submit a comment here. The SBA has a guide for comment letter writing here. Congresswoman Nydia Velázquez, ranking member on the House Small Business committee, is circulating a letter to other congress critters to sign on to, opposing the rules change. Ask your reps to sign on, too! Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

What’s wrong with us? Our nation’s moral compass, I mean. I don’t like being a downer, just focusing on wrongs, but some wrongs stand out as morally abominable, such as this one. It’s about hundreds of thousands of our low-income elders who, toward the end of life (when frail and most vulnerable) find themselves cast into a part of the Medicaid system that has been deliberately structured by Congress to subject them to needless deprivations and daily indignities. These are our loved ones with serious health problems who need long term care in nursing homes, and two-thirds of them rely on Medicaid to cover their costs. To get this benefit, they surrender all of their income, which goes to defray their nursing home expenses. Of course, for a decent existence beyond mere survival, we all rely on a few little things that are basic to our humanity. So, Medicaid authorizes each state to set a monthly “personal needs allowance,” so their elderly patients can cover hygiene and grooming products, a book or CD, a small gift for grandchildren, a chocolate bar, etc. Good! But then Mr. Mingy walked in. In 1987, Congress set the minimum for this allowance at a meager $30 a month – under $8 a week! Congress has not raised it in the decades since, and most states still provide only a pittance, despite inflation and monopoly price gouging on practically everything. So, our state and national “leaders” (who freely dole out massive corporate subsidies and tax giveaways to billionaires) are leaving ill seniors with so little spending money that they must ration their toothpaste and scrimp pennies to buy a rare treat from the vending machine. I know this is small in the global scale of human indignities, but that makes it an even bigger moral failure for our society. It would take so little to do so much for so many. Do something! * There are 2 bills sitting in the Energy and Commerce committee in Congress right now: H.R.5685, sponsored by Rep Gwen Moore, and H.R.7778, sponsored by Rep. Suhas Subramanyam. If you’ve got a representative on the committee—hello, AOC and longtime friend of the Lowdown Jan Schakowsky— call as a constituent and find out what’s going on with these bills. * Want to fight poverty in senior communities, and get support/ideas/resources if you’re in need? Check out Justice in Aging! Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

It’s the fall harvest season, when many farm stands and homes decorate with pumpkins, corn stalks, and maybe even a straw man. How to make a straw man? Easy – stuff a couple of burlap bags with hay and dress your “man” in an old flannel shirt, overalls, and straw hat. But today’s billionaires, corporate elites, and other political megadonors have come up with their own version of this creature – stuff a couple of silk pillows with thousand-dollar bills, dress him in a fine-tailored suit, and – voilá! – they turn a common straw man into a congress man. The stuffing is what allows corporate powers to create a government that routinely serves their avarice at the expense of the rest of us. Indeed, in this election season, they’ve already stuffed about two billion dollars into congress creatures who’ll support their AI data centers, tax breaks, and other boondoggles. Who are these money stuffers? Ahh, that’s the secret to their corruption. In 2010, America’s partisan, corporatized Supreme Court handed a legalistic, anti-democracy weapon called “Dark Money” to giant corporations. By judicial dictate, the Court’s Republican majority ruled that executives can give unlimited sums of corporate cash to SuperPACs to elect their straw men – without telling us commoners who is buying which lawmakers and at what price. Secret money equals secret government. Yet, both parties are going along with this corruption, claiming to be “powerless” to overturn the Court’s edict. Powerless? What about asking The People to intervene? An overwhelming majority of Americans of every political stripe despise the Dark Money trick and will rally behind any serious effort to kill it. A bipartisan effort to do just that is now underway in Montana. Learn about it from transparentelection.org – then go forth and multiply. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

Last week, Hightower had the absolute pleasure of appearing on Tavis Smiley’s live radio talk show—a lot of great laughs, and a lot of good ground covered! From the Texas races, to America at 250, to the idea that fundamental fairness is a sense all humans share, Tavis and Hightower went deep. Tavis and his team have given us permission to share it with you here, and we’re so grateful—he’s also just started his own Substack newsletter, and we encourage you to subscribe to one of the greats of American media at tavissmiley.substack.com. You can also listen live on KBLA 1580 daily, and subscribe to his podcast. —dz Transcript Edited lightly for clarity Part 1 Tavis Smiley: Tavis Smiley, glad you’re with us in the second hour of our program here today. Yesterday, we stepped into what I call the Elders’ Skybox to talk to Dr. Johnette Cole. She was absolutely amazing yesterday. If you missed that conversation with Johnnetta Cole yesterday, I encourage you to check out the podcast, now posted. She, of course, is the legendary, the iconic, first African American woman to be president of Spelman. But she’s covered so much ground in her amazing career, and she joined us yesterday on the show. And Johnnetta Cole still got it. I mean, she was just blazing yesterday. So if you missed the conversation with Johnnetta Cole yesterday, I encourage you, you will not be disappointed. Check out the podcast, now up, of our dialogue with Dr. Cole yesterday. So we stepped into the Elders Skybox again today to talk to our friend and brother Jim Hightower, the legendary talk show host down in Texas. I quote him oftentimes. When you hear me say that the only thing you find in the middle of the road is a dead armadillo, that was Jim Hightower years ago, and I’ve never forgotten that line from all those years ago. You can’t be middle of the road. We were just talking about that in our hour with Dr. Kaye Wise Whitehead about Hakeem Jeffries and some of these Democrats who, on a number of issues, still want to occupy the center, the middle of the road. That is not where one needs to be, especially right about now. Pick a side. Pick a side is my point. And that was Jim Hightower’s advice many, many years ago. I never forgot when he said it, and I’ve held on to it all these years. I invited him on today to talk about this hot Texas Senate race, but more broadly to get his take, as a longtime progressive, on the march that we are witnessing in real time by these progressives after decades of being in the wilderness. With all that said, I’m honored to welcome Jim Hightower to this program. Jim, how are you, sir? Jim Hightower: I’m doing great, Tavis, and all the greater because I get to visit with you. Tavis Smiley: It’s my honor to have you on this program. Thank you for those kind words. I meant what I said earlier about having listened to you. I’m at that age now. I just turned 62 a couple of days ago, and I’ve been at this, what, 35 years. My mom teases me about it, but people come on the show all the time: “Mr. Smiley, I grew up listening to you, I grew up watching you.” So I’m at that age now where I’m getting that. And this is funny, because I can say that to Jim Hightower now. I grew up listening to him and watching him, and so I’m thrilled to have him on this program. Let me just start with this, broadly speaking. I’ve asked this question of other guests. I’ve got two minutes now, we’ve got the rest of the hour when we come forward, but in these first two minutes, I’m asking you the same question I’ve asked of others. We are inside that eight-week sprint from Labor Day to Election Day. How are you feeling? Jim Hightower: I am feeling more upbeat than I have been in years about Texas politics. Our party has finally come alive down here, as you just indicated. We’ve had too many corporate centrists trying to dominate our party, thinking we can fool the people if we just tiptoe around our progressivism, rather than recognizing that people themselves are progressive. And if we talk to them in that kind of language, they might respond to us in a more favorable way than they have in the past, or respond at all. I would point out, first of all, Tavis, that Texas is not a right-wing state. It is not a Republican state. It is a non-voting state. And it has not been voting because the Democratic Party, my party, has been over in the ditch somewhere, trying not to be discovered, rather than recognizing that most people are quite progressive. I think of it in terms of my own father, who kept up with politics, but he was not political, particularly. He didn’t know he had a political philosophy, but he did, and it was expressed to me many times in these words. He said, “Jim, everybody does better when everybody does better.” And that is what the Democratic Party is supposed to represent. And so that spirit is coming back within the Democratic Party. We have it with James Talarico running for Senate, Gina Hinojosa running for governor, but also let us not forget those down-ballot candidates, who can make such a difference in a campaign. I’ve been one of those myself, so I can attest to it. And we have a terrific lineup this year, including Clayton Tucker running for agriculture commissioner, a position that most people wouldn’t pay a whole lot of attention to until you realize, wait a minute, if you eat, you are involved in agriculture. And we need to make that political as well as edible. Tavis Smiley: Love it. He’s already on a roll. That is the Jim Hightower that I grew up listening to. He’s wise, he drops these one-liners; as we say these days, he’s dropping bars. I love his father’s edict that everybody does better when everybody does better. It’s so simple. But I want to give him some time to unpack this. I want to interrogate this notion that people themselves are progressive. People themselves are progressive. That line resonated with me; I suspect it did with you as well. I’ll let him unpack that and a great deal more. I’m glad to have Jim Hightower for the hour on Tavis Smiley. Tavis Smiley, and longtime progressive activist, legendary talk show host, bestselling author Jim Hightower. So we’ve stepped into the Elders Skybox to tap into his wisdom in this hour as we are hurtling inexorably toward Election Day on Tuesday, November 3rd. Wanted to check in with him on some national issues, but certainly everybody’s watching this Senate race in Texas. I talk to my friends down there all the time, and they are so excited about turning Texas blue. You heard Jim Hightower say a moment ago that Texas is not a Republican state, it’s not a red state, it’s a non-voting state. I’ll let him unpack that as we move through this hour. But just some quick updates here. So you saw the Republican convention, that two-day farce they had down in Texas not long ago. Since that convention, a new poll has come out about the race in Texas. Interestingly, the survey happened on September 13th. That was Sunday, my birthday. And it’s good news for James Talarico. The latest poll, this is the SoCal Strategies poll, shows Talarico leading Paxton 50 percent to 45 percent. It’s a five-point margin. There had been a two-point lead by Paxton over Talarico. It’s fascinating. So before the convention, Paxton was leading Talarico by two points in Texas. Post the convention, it flips. Talarico is now leading Paxton by five points. Not sure what Ken Paxton did or said at that convention that made these numbers flip. Obviously it’s very, very tight, and these polls are snapshots in time. We still have weeks to go before Election Day. We’ll let Jim Hightower unpack a bit more about the tightness of this race in Texas in this hour. But I want to start right now, Jim, where we left off moments ago, and that is with your suggestion that people are themselves a great deal more progressive than we acknowledge or give them credit for. We’ve got time. Unpack that for me. Jim Hightower: Well, just go back to your childhood. The very first political expres… This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

To cope with the eminent danger posed by today’s arrogant, profiteering AI billionaires – Donald Trump says that the only thing America needs is a “STRONG AND SMART (High IQ!) PRESIDENT!” Well, yes – let’s try to find one of those! The president we have now is quite the opposite. Take the politically explosive issue of massive AI data centers suddenly intruding into thousands of communities across America, sucking up people’s land, water, electricity, and democratic control. Even red-state, MAGA conservatives are in furious rebellion against what amounts to a corporate sneak attack on millions of us. Where’s the president when we really need him? He’s plotting with the tech invaders to publicly trash those who are rebelling against the tech giants, and deploying Big Government autocrats to rig the rules to silence us opponents. For example, a little-known Trump operative named Lee Zeldin has been embedded as czar of the EPA. He’s now decreeing there’s no need for local communities to be notified that a data center is moving in on them, nor should there be public comment period on air pollution issues. This means that residents’ first notice that a sprawling data center will be built door will be the roar of bulldozers. Worse, Commissar Zeldin wants to let data center billionaires start building their acres of polluting facilities before permits are approved. Also, this MAGA bureaucrat insists that such massive facilities be reclassified as “minor” air polluters – like a car repair shop or local laundromat. Zeldin has also unilaterally reframed the purpose of the EPA. He has declared that the top priority of EPA is not environmental protection, but to “make the US the artificial intelligence capital of the world.” Do something! If you’re unsure about what “AI” and “data centers” really mean, check out the plain-English explainers we published recently: part 1 on AI, and part 2 on data centers. Here are a few hubs of data center action that will help you find your way to join the rebellion: * Data Center Opposition Report: A regularly-published comprehensive report on the numbers of fights out there, with case studies for inspiration * The Stop Data Centers Coalition has a list of member organizations who are calling for a national data center moratorium * The Coalition for Responsible Data Center Development, a Minnesota based organization, has published a map of Facebook groups all over the country fighting data centers * One of our top go-to resources are the toolkits that MediaJustice has created * Kairos Fellowship also has a slew of guides and is developing a hotline that local groups can call for advice. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe

It’s one thing for someone like me say that the Republican Party has dived into the abyss of political delirium. But it’s another thing when the Party itself confirms its collective delirium for two whole days in a made-for-TV political talk-a-thon. Their theme was: “Bring Back Joe McCarthy!” Let’s not forget what a horror McCarthyism was – a 1950s descent into totalitarian repression. Fomented by Joe – a brutish and slimey Republican senator who terrorized America for a decade with a vicious “red-baiting” crusade to crush liberals, unions, minorities, government employees, homosexuals, professors, and others he and his rich backers hated. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it? Indeed, given Joe’s direct parallels to today’s White House, you’d think GOP strategists wouldn’t want to resurface that disgraceful chapter of their heritage, but there they were this month, proudly pushing: McCarthyism 2026. Not just the party’s fringe, but its top “leaders” were squawking from the podium like Chicken Littles that Democrats are anti-American communists! Trump himself bellowed maniacally that Dems even intend to destroy Mount Rushmore – “they want to blow it up,” he squealed. A parade of top Republican officials literally shouted at the audience’s MAGA faithful to fear Democrats. Tim Scott, chair of the party’s senatorial fundraising arm, exclaimed that Democrats are fiends who “hate what it means to be American,” so they are coming to “rip that heart out of our chest.” Sure, Tim, it’s “evil” for Democrats to advocate for Social Security, health care for all, affordable housing, voting rights… and, you know, “communist” stuff like that. So, please, you do you – keep running your mouth and let the people decide who’s crazy. Jim Hightower's Lowdown is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jimhightower.substack.com/subscribe