Tonight's episode of Bill Moyers' Journal is the last: Jim Hightower and Iowa populism lead the show

[marmar]

:cry: Mr. Moyers, you have no idea how big a void your departure leaves.



http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html


April 30, 2010

"The only solution to any problem is to get to work on it."

That phrase is the motto of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) profiled on THE JOURNAL. In its 36 year history the CCI has addressed a number of issues through grassroots organizing — and political action.

Like the original populists of the 19th century south and west, the CCI began its organization around the battle between individual farmers and corporate farming interests. Today they are trying to battle a bill that would allow industrial-scale farms to spread liquid manure on top of frozen or snow-covered fields, a practice deemed hazardous to the environment and a potential health risk.

The CCI has also taken on the challenge of preserving a core aspect of the American dream — fighting abusive lending as well as offering financial classes and counseling to encourage and safeguard home ownership. And the CCI is embracing the changing demographics of their state by supporting the many Latino immigrants who are working the in meatpacking industry. The CCI has taken on labor, discrimination and immigration issues. And again hearkening back to those early populists — the group is a firm supporter of getting big money out of American politics through it's arm, Voter-Owned Iowa.

As member and farmer Larry Ginter puts it the founding fathers likes a good fight — so should their heirs.

"There's a saying, 'Revolution begins in a peasant hut.' You got to fight for the justice. You got to fight for the fair wage. You got to fight for housing. You got to fight for healthcare. Fight for the elderly, fight for family farmers and workers. Fight for the environment. And that's what Iowa CCI does."

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April 30, 2010

Jim Hightower's homepage lists him as "America's #1 Populist" and he likes to be known for his actions as a "populist agitator." Hightower wants America to regain the strength of those populist agitators who fought corporate power in the late 19th century:
"We owe them imitation. We owe them the continuation of that spirit that we do not have to just accept what is handed to us. We can battle back against the powers. But it's not just going to a rally and shouting. It's organizing and it's thinking. And reaching out to others. And building a real people's movement."
But what is populism? When it's defined as grassroots democracy at its best, both sides of the political spectrum are happy to grab the mantle. But both sides run from the label when it signifies rabid, unreasoned anger.

The COLUMBIA JOURNALISM REVIEW lambasted the term's use in the 2008 campaign season: "Before this gets out of hand, big media needs to stop using the word 'populist' to describe Democrats' economic programs and their appeals to voters....Reporters and headline writers don't need to be historians-on-deadline to know that the word 'populist' has no widely agreed-upon definition, but plenty of negative associations." Those associations include negatives, "anti-capitalist and backward-looking," and perhaps positives, "reformist, anti-elitist, and yes, anti-big business."

The label populist has only grown in use since the election. David Broder praised Sarah Palin for "her pitch-perfect populism" on the op-ed pages of THE WASHINGTON POST. A recent NEWSWEEK photo essay on American Conservative Movements used the word populist in its introduction but didn't actually include the 19th century movement among the Know-Nothings, Dixiecrats and Tea Parties.

The progressive magazine MOTHER JONES, also evaluated the movements labeled populism in "Why Bank Rage Is Not Populism." What passes for populism today, says author James Ridgeway is way too weak for the label because "It's directed at the worst excesses of the system, not at the system itself."