The issue isn’t just jobs. Even slaves had jobs. The issue is wages.

About Jim Hightower

James Allen Hightoweris an American syndicated columnist, progressive political activist, and author. From 1983 to 1991 he served as the elected commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture.

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More quotes from Jim Hightower

Even the smallest dog can lift its leg on the tallest building.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

The Bible declares that on the sixth day God created man. Right then and there, God should have demanded a damage deposit.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

Democracy is not something that happens, you know, just at election time, and it’s not something that happens just with one event. It’s an ongoing building process. But it also ought to be a part of our culture, a part of our lives.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

There’s enormous progressive activism and, more often than not, success at the grassroots level – everything from living wage campaigns to efforts to finance our elections are having terrific success.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

When I entered politics, I took the only downward turn you could take from journalism.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

Do something. If it doesn’t work, do something else. No idea is too crazy.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

But, as my mother used to tell me, two wrongs don’t make a right. But I soon figured out that three left turns do.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

There’s nothing in the middle of the road but a yellow stripe and dead armadillos.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

This is a matter of public health. The public was sick and tired of DeLay and his corruption.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

The middle of the road is for yellow lines and dead armadillos.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

Little ol’ boy in the Panhandle told me the other day you can still make a small fortune in agriculture. Problem is, you got to start with a large one.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

The good news, though, is that I find in my political travels that people, as regular citizens, are more interested than ever in getting together and having discussions. They want to hear about other viewpoints that differ entirely from what the administration is putting out.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

It’s hard to believe President George Bush gave a speech in New Orleans about disaster recovery and failed to mention the word ‘farm’ or the word ‘rural.’

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

The only difference between a pigeon and the American farmer today is that a pigeon can still make a deposit on a John Deere.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

The opposite for courage is not cowardice, it is conformity. Even a dead fish can go with the flow.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

It’s hard for the donkeys to win the race if they’re going to carry the elephants on their backs.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

But the good news is that out in the countryside, just about every place that’s got a zip code has somebody or some group of people battling the economic and political exclusion that Wall Street and Washington are shoving down our throats.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

Politics isn’t about left versus right; it’s about top versus bottom.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

If you don’t speak out now when it matters, when would it matter for you to speak out?

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

So now is the time, more than ever, for those who truly value all the principles of democracy, especially including dissent, to be the most forceful in speaking up, standing up and speaking out.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

The issue isn’t just jobs. Even slaves had jobs. The issue is wages.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

The corporations don’t have to lobby the government anymore. They are the government.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist

What’s new is that the White House itself has now been corporatized. It’s not politicians working for the corporate interests. They are the corporate interests. That’s where Bush came from, and Cheney and Rumsfeld.

Jim Hightower

Texas author and liberal political activist