POLITICS Archives • Hightower Lowdown

Do elites really think they can knock us down without provoking us to stand up and push back?

Feisty, creative coalitions are standing up to the corporate order While taking in the splendor of the Grand Palace in Bangkok, a tourist came across a monk and asked if he could snap a photo of him. The mon... Read more...

The boss man gets bossier

CITIZENS UNITED not only unleashed the Big Dogs of corporate money in this election, but it also unleashed mad-dog corporate bosses to tell employees how to vote. Prior to that Court ruling, corporate funds cou... Read more...

Wall Street, the Kochs, and Rove lost to the people– so let’s make Washington govern for the people

Political thieves are already plotting to steal our 2012 victory As I learned from experience in my "vote-for-me" period, the nature of the political scramble is this: You win some, you lose some. Co... Read more...

The Post Office is not broke–and it hasn’t taken any of our tax money since 1971

Answering the lies that privatization zealots and FedEx are peddling Consider $.50. What does that buy these days? Not a cuppa joe--that'll cost you two bucks at Starbucks, and even McDonald's wants ... Read more...

Grassroots progressives give us real reasons to be grateful this Thanksgiving

Teabag Republicans "rebel" by supporting the corporate agenda Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Butch Hancock form the Flatlanders, a powerhouse trio of Texas singer/ songwriters now based in Austin.... Read more...

Corporate kings grab our tax subsidies but create no new jobs. Obama fiddles.

In the past two years 55 percent of workers have lost a job or taken a cut By gollies, when the economic going gets toughfor America's workaday people, you can always count on our tough-minded politi... Read more...

To put the progress back in “progressive,” we need a real populist movement

Populism is not about mobs, anti-government rants, or opinion polls If a political pollster came to my door and asked whether I consider myself a conservative or a liberal, I'd answer, "No." Not t... Read more...

Supreme Court considers vast increase in the political power of corporations

Roberts jumps to serve his favorite constituency, on the quiet At his 2005 hearing to be confirmed as chief justice of the Supreme Court, John Roberts had to convince some skeptical senators that he ... Read more...

Populism is not a style, it’s a people’s rebellion against corporate power

The media calls anyone who shouts "a populist" When I lived in Washington, DC, in the 1970s, I got a call from a friend of mine who worked for the Congressional Research Service--a legislative agency... Read more...

The many REASONS TO BE CHEERFUL after Election Day 2008

Next come the battles for the changes we voted for After casting her ballot for Barack Obama, Amanda Jones said simply, "I feel good about voting for him." Ms. Jones, of Cedar Creek, Texas (a town... Read more...

Political outsiders are the only change we can count on

Whoever wins, we need Kevin, Heather, A.J., Monisha, Stan, Debbie, and Peter At a time when We The People have been vociferously and unequivocally demanding that our political aspirants offer Big Ide... Read more...

Name that VEEP!

In our July issue we asked Lowdowners to come up with names for an Obama administration. Here's what you told us: Vice-President: Bill Richardson, comfortably ahead of John Edwards (pre-confession) and Hi... Read more...

Obama slip-sliding away?

Mixed emotions are what you experience when you see your 16-year-old daughter come home from the prom with a Gideon Bible under her arm. You get mixed emotions watching Barack Obama. While he clearly has pro... Read more...

Name that VEEP!

Name that VEEP! WHY SHOULD STAID OLD PUNDITS have all the fun in political guessing games? Let's bring you into play. Join us in taking the Lowdown Presidential Survey--a free-wheeling, thoroughly unscien... Read more...

What Obama calls “old politics”

Old Congress critters never die, they just go to K Street. Take Dennis Hastert. Actually, he's already taken. The longtime Republican lawmaker retired last November, but rather than return to Illinois, he ha... Read more...

If Obama wins, who will be on his team–and who should be?

We'll send him your picks for the pyramid of power There'll be a crush of cameras at the front door of the White House on January 20 as scores of media outlets scramble to record the moment that the ... Read more...

Who are the big-money givers behind the candidates?

Identifying the friends of Clinton, McCain, and Obama: Dallas Oilman H.L. Hunt was a billionaire in a time when such massive wealth was unusual, back in the 1950s and '60s. H.L. was also politically ... Read more...

Swim against the current folks! (Even a dead fish can go with the flow)

Hightower discovers genuine heroes across our country SUSAN DEMARCO AND I WANT TO GIVE YOU LOWDOWNERS A SPECIAL PREVIEW of our new book, for it personalizes the positive grassroots message that the L... Read more...

America to D.C. — Democrats included: We’re mad as hell and you’re not listening!

Stop making war, globalizing poverty, and trashing our Constitution IN A SEASON THAT SHOULD BE CONVIVIAL AND COMFORTING -- filled with family, friends, fun, spiritualism, good food, song, and high sp... Read more...

The presidency is taking over the courts and Congress

While most of the Democrats in Washington cower WHERE IS CONGRESS? It's way past time for members to stand up. Historic matters are at stake. The Constitution is being trampled, the very form of our ... Read more...

The Bushites have outsourced our government to their pals

There may be as many rent-a-troops in Iraq as U.S. military THE SPRAWLING $43 BILLION HOMELAND SECURITY DEPARTMENT (HSD) is known chiefly for being the agency in charge of America's color-coded terro... Read more...

It’s time for people’s housing, people’s transit, and PEOPLE FIRST!

The Battle of New Orleans II By the fifth day -- with New Orleans under 20 feet of toxic water, with federal help still nowhere to be seen, and with 100,000 or so poor people trapped in unbelievable ... Read more...

Bush II brought to you by…

The buying of the government 2004 (Part 1) The Capitol City is swarming this month with party-hopping Republicans celebrating the inauguration of their boy Bush—but the most joyous inaugural party of... Read more...

Reasons to celebrate and be hopeful!

Kerry lost (probably), and was his own undoing Okay, my election projections were slightly off. I said that there would be the biggest turnout in many years, which there was; that there would be a tr... Read more...

Progressive groups are busting out all over

Hey, there's good news at the grassroots Hey, come on, progressives— buck up! There's been too much doom and gloom—especially among inside-the-beltway progressives—about John Kerry's chances on Nov... Read more...

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