Tip of the Week 42

When I sat down at my computer this morning to write my weekly tip column for this website, I suddenly realized that this week marks my 42 consecutive Tip of the Week.

That fact hit me like a ton of bricks because, whether you believe me or not, researching and writing this stuff takes me at the very least, 3 hours per installment.

That's 42 X 3 or more than 126 hours that I've devoted up till now, pontificating my views and sharing my personal interests with you, the reader -- WHEW!

And, by now, I would imagine that most of you, who have bothered to read all this "stuff," have picked up on several of the underlying themes of my writing -- themes unabashedly based on subject matter that reflects my personal interests and opinions.

Alternative energy, the environment, activism and protection of the free flow of information -- in the past I've shared my opinions on all these subjects with you and offered tips about them all.

But what bothers me the most is the abhorrent conduct of Corporate America. It is my personal opinion that in America today, Big Corporations represent the single biggest threat to our Democratic way of life!

Why, because their success has come at our expense. Example: Family businesses, all across this land, are dying. Don't believe me; take a look around for yourself. Try to find a family owned hardware store -- most of them have been forced to close their doors and their owners are now forced to work for the nearest Home Depot. Family owned and operated restaurants are a rarity these days too! But, unfortunately there's a Chili's or Appleby's on every corner.

The growth of big business in America has resulted in an unprecedented polarization of wealth. Big oil, pharmaceuticals, the healthcare conglomerates -- they're all reaping obscene profits. Now, the top 1% of our population has accumulated 90% of our wealth. The middle class is in danger of extinction and historically that's not a good thing.

Furthermore, we Americans have no one else to blame but ourselves. Collectively, we are apathetic and have shirked our responsibilities as stewards of this Democracy. We've failed to hold our elected officials accountable and have stood passively by, watching from the sidelines while big corporations, big money and powerful lobbyists buy political influence to stack the deck in their favor.

But all is still not lost, my fellow Americans.

There is a steadily growing chorus of disgusted middle-class voices, like mine, that have begun rising up from the silence. There is a ray of hope for us all that is finally beginning to light the darkness. Middle Class America has developed a growing realization that our situation is not hopeless.

This is an election year. All Americans have a chance for redemption. We have a messiah and he has recently published a manifesto for our resurrection.

Jim Hightower is his name and "Swim Against the Current - Even Dead Fish Can Go With The Flow" is his manifesto.

This is Jim's latest book and it hit the shelf March 10 of this year. It joins the ranks of his previous seven books including, Thieves In High Places: They've Stolen Our Country And It's Time To Take It Back; If the Gods Had Meant Us To Vote They Would Have Given Us Candidates; and There's Nothing In the Middle Of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos. For some of you, Jim Hightower may need no introduction, but as political columnist Molly Ivins said, "If Will Rogers and Mother Jones had a baby, Jim Hightower would be that rambunctious child -- mad as hell, with a sense of humor."

I first became a fan of Jim's years ago when, as a working photojournalist, I began listening to his homespun wit, humor and insights on my car radio (WMNF 88.5 FM in my area) to kill time while commuting between newspaper photo assignments.

Mr. Hightower is a national radio commentator, writer, public speaker, and author who has spent three decades battling the Powers That Be on behalf of the Powers That Ought To Be - consumers, working families, environmentalists, small businesses, and just-plain-folks like you and me.

Twice elected Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Hightower believes that the true political spectrum is not right to left but top to bottom, and he has become a leading national voice for the 80 percent of the public who no longer find themselves within shouting distance of the Washington and Wall Street powers at the top.

Hightower broadcasts daily radio commentaries that are carried in more than 150 commercial and public stations, on the web, on Armed Forces Radio, and on Radio for Peace International. He also does a weekly video blog that is carried on many popular websites.

Each month, he publishes a populist political newsletter, "The Hightower Lowdown," which now has more than 135,000 subscribers and is the fastest growing political publication in America. The hard-hitting Lowdown has received both the Alternative Press Award and the Independent Press Association Award for best national newsletter.

Here's a taste of Jim's perspective on our world:

Defining the Corporation

"It exists solely for itself, operating strictly to enlarge its bottom line and enrich the wealthiest elites who own and run it. Corporations are artificial legal fictions (a scrap of paper, really) that let their owners reap profits without having to be personally responsible for any harm done in pursuit of those profits. The corporation itself has no feelings, no conscience, no heart, no soul, no morality, no shame -- no butt to kick and nobody to put in jail."

He quotes renowned economist Milton Friedman who once famously opined that as long as they stay within the law, corporate chief executive officers have no responsibilities in their business activities other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible.

"Did he (Friedman) not know that we know that corporate executives and lobbyists buy the law, write the law, bend it, twist it, pervert it, slice-dice-grate-and-grind it finer that a Ronco Veg-O-Matic?" Hightower demands.

It will come as no surprise that public financing for election campaigns is one of the major themes of "Swim Against the Current."

"As I think a majority of the American people now feel, people of all political stripes, we don't really have a democracy," says Jim. "We have a money-soaked system in which money doesn't just talk, it shouts and drowns out the voice of regular people. And they know they're not part of that system. ... But they feel powerless to do much about it. ..."

The whole point of "Swim Against the Current" is that ordinary people are not powerless. The book is full of stories of people who bucked the corporate structure and succeeded and of activists who bucked the political status quo and changed the way their state and local governments do business.

Among the success stories: North Carolina's Judicial Campaign Reform bill, signed into law by Gov. Mike Easley in 2002. The bill provides public financing for candidates for North Carolina's Supreme Court and Court of Appeals.

"Don't underestimate how much power plain ol' citizens actually have if they get organized behind a good idea," Hightower writes in "Swim Against the Current." "That's what happened in North Carolina in 2000, when a coalition of Tar Heel groups, assembled under the banner of North Carolina Voters for Clean Elections (NCVCE), determined to break the iron fist of money in state politics."

The positive results of the judicial campaign reform law Hightower cites include the election of four women, including the first African-American woman to be popularly elected to North Carolina's top court, and the first woman elected chief justice.

Six states (Arizona, Connecticut, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico and North Carolina) and two cities (Albuquerque and Portland, Ore.) now have some form of public financing in place.

Candidates of all stripes have chosen to accept public financing "rejoicing that doing so liberates them from the necessity of going around incessantly rattling a tin cup for donations," Hightower writes. "It has also meant that more women and people of color are running and winning, more incumbents are being ousted … more issues are seeing the light of day, and more people are paying attention to elections … and to voting."

Public financing support

Hightower noted that polls show that 70 percent of the American people support public campaign financing. He pointed to national legislation that's been proposed for public financing of congressional elections.

The chief sponsors are Sen. Dick Durban, D-Ill., and Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass. Tierney's Clean Money, Clean Elections Act (H.R. 1614) "creates a voluntary system that gives candidates an option to forgo private funding without having to undermine their ability to run a competitive campaign" and "allows qualified candidates to run for public office without compromising their independence, since they won't have to ask for money from those with a vested interest in public policy," according to Tierney's Web site.

In a floor statement regarding the Fair Elections Now Act Durbin and Sen. Arlen Specter introduced in the Senate in March 2007, Durbin noted that a call for public financing of campaigns was the cornerstone of President Teddy Roosevelt's 1907 State of the Union Address.

"I know the Senate moves slowly, but a century is long enough to wait," he quipped. "Congress can pass all the lobbying and ethics reforms we want, but we won't get to the heart of the problem when it comes to the confidence of the American public until we address the issue of campaign financing. Special-interest money and influence will always find new loopholes, until we change this political system fundamentally."

Finding remedies

In the introduction to "Swim Against the Current," Hightower says he and co-author Susan DeMarco wrote the book "to give people a sense of the various possibilities for escaping the corporate tentacles."

"Corporation is not a synonym for capitalism," Hightower says. "…Corporations are not innovative, they're not entrepreneurial, they squash those when they buy them."

Hence, the importance of public financing of campaigns, not only because it gives ordinary people a chance to become lawmakers without selling their souls, but because it reduces the power of corporate lobbyists to influence legislation and corrupt our capitalist economy.

So, if you're discouraged about where your life and/or our nation are headed, this week's "Tip of the Week" - got out, buy and read "Swim Against the Current." It's a call to arms that, thanks to Hightower's outrageous wit, is fun to read (I couldn't put it down) and is sure to encourage you to strive to become one of the rebels he writes about and calls "the great hope and true leaders of our country."

See you right back here next week!