In my view, the greatest of America’s “Founding Fathers” was not George Washington or Thomas Jefferson — nor, technically, was he even an American. Rather, he was a British immigrant and itinerate agitator for real democracy, enlightenment and universal human rights.
He was Thomas Paine, a prolific, profound, persuasive and widely popular pamphleteer in the movement for American Independence. With plain language and genuine passion for the cause, Paine’s 47-page pamphlet, “Common Sense,” was so compelling in its support of the Revolution that it was passed around from person to person — and even read aloud in taverns! But Paine wasn’t content with democratic rhetoric; he actually believed in an egalitarian society, and his post-revolution writings (including “The Age of Reason” and “Agrarian Justice”) unabashedly demanded that the new hierarchy of US leaders fulfill the promise of democracy.
Even before the War for Independence, Paine called for slaves to be freed and slavery prohibited. After the war, he terrified most of the gentlemen of means who’d signed the Declaration of Independence by insisting that non-landowners be eligible to vote and hold office (John Adams was so appalled by this that he decried “Common Sense” as a “crapulous mess”). But Paine just kept pushing, calling for women’s suffrage, progressive taxation, state-funded child care, a guaranteed minimum income, universal public education, strict separation of church and state, and adoption of some of the democratic principles of the Iroquois Nation.
This is Jim Hightower saying, Don’t tell small-minded, right-wing demagogues like Ron DeSantis and Greg Abbott — but Thomas Paine was WOKE! Some 250 years before their push to impose autocracy, plutocracy and theocracy over us, this revolutionary founder championed social justice and economic fairness. As one historian noted, “We are today all Paine’s children,” for he imbued America’s destiny with democratic impulse and aspiration.
Well, well, well — look who’s waking up and raring to go: Mr. and Ms. WOKE!
We so-called “woke” people have been the target of far-right politicos and front groups that are frantically trying to ban us and our ideas from America’s political discourse. In the past few years, such thuggish gubernatorial demagogues as Ron DeSantis have perverted the power of Big Government to attack teachers, librarians, public agencies and even beer. Beer!
Why? Because such people and organizations make educational efforts to reduce bigotry, hatred and exclusiveness in our society. “That’s woke,” screech the ultra-rightists, demanding that any talk about racism, sexism, gender discrimination or other ugly realities in America must be suppressed.
Like the witch hunters of old, today’s pious puritans of ideological conformity have demonized such basic values as diversity and equity, calling them “toxic.” DeSantis outlawed any teaching of them in Florida universities, and then he cut sociology from the core curriculum of the state’s educational system — essentially cutting out “us,” the study of humanity.
If ignorance is bliss, the DeSantis clique must be ecstatic, for they are eliminating crucial lessons in the art of tolerance, community, sharing, collaboration ... and getting along together. You can have a society that works for the benefit of all — or a DeSantisWorld, where the few rule, and everyone else is forced to conform to their biases.
This is Jim Hightower saying, But wait — the great majority of Americans are rebelling and saying: “We are woke!” Even Republicans flatly rejected DeSantis’ presidential campaign that promised to “Floridize” America with anti-WOKE nonsense. And far from wanting to reverse efforts to increase diversity and inclusiveness, a recent poll found that 70% of Americans (including half of Republicans) say our country “needs to do more to increase social justice.”
Poor Katie Britt, the Republican senator from Alabama. She was set up by her party’s operatives to do the GOP’s televised response to Joe Biden’s State of the Union speech.
Sadly, her moment in the national limelight was widely panned, even by Republicans, for her presentation was overwrought and — well, cringey. But the visuals pale to insignificance when you consider that her partisan presentation was based on an intentional, abject lie — exacerbated by her shameful exploitation of a woman who had been brutally raped.
Britt told about a 12-year-old Mexican girl who was the victim of multiple rapes, implying the girl’s horror was caused by “Biden’s border crisis.” Unfortunately for the senator, an alert investigative reporter blew the whistle on her political lie. Yes, the grotesque rapes happened — but 20 years ago, not on Biden’s watch. Indeed, Republican George W. Bush was president! Also, her nightmare occurred in Central Mexico, far from the US border, and it had nothing to do with migrants.
Britt knew she was lying as she dramatically concluded that Biden’s Latino “invasion” (as Republicans demagogically brand desperate refugees) is “almost entirely preventable.” Yes, but guess who helped negotiate a bipartisan bill to end the border crush — then cynically voted to kill the bill because Donald Trump told her to? Katie Britt.
And what about that Mexican woman whose trauma Britt cruelly exploited? She’s now working in Mexico for a nonprofit trying to stop human trafficking. Yet, Britt and the GOP didn’t even have the grace to tell her they were going to pervert her story for partisan politics. “I thought it was very strange,” she said when later informed of Britt’s crude re-exploitation of her — adding pointedly that, “The work I do is not a game.”
Too many Americans newspapers have shut down or shriveled to irrelevance, but, luckily, we still have such bastions of local journalism as the Chicago Chronicle and New York News Daily.
But wait ... those aren’t real newspapers, aren’t local, and aren’t even American. They are Russian fake-news outlets, created in recent weeks by Vladimir Putin’s propagandists to interfere in our presidential election. They are web publications with names and designs that mimic real US news sites but have no reporters or local newsrooms. Rather, they exist solely to fabricate “news reports” that appear legitimate, getting picked up and re-reported as fact in understaffed, chain-owned newspapers and then promoted on right-wing social media sites.
This is what happens to people and democracy when local journalism is stripped away or hollowed out; no one is on regular watch, allowing charlatans, profiteers and propagandists to dupe unsuspecting residents. Not only have hundreds of papers been eliminated, but half of the remaining dailies are now owned by Wall Street predators like SoftBank, the Japanese hedge fund that controls the huge USA Today/Gannett chain. Their interest is not in your town or quality journalism, but in slashing news coverage to jack up their profits. Such absentee owners have eliminated nearly 60% of America’s reporters and other newsroom staff in just 20 years.
Let’s be clear: Real journalism is labor-driven. No reporters on the ground, no local news. Hello — “news” is the lifeblood of democracy, so why hold it hostage to a handful of corporate profit-seekers? Are we such unimaginative clods that we can’t figure out how to finance honest, non-plutocratic news for our democracy?
For ideas on how to revive local news in your town, contact rebuildlocalnews.org — and give news democracy a boost.
Jim Hightower is a former Texas Observer editor, former Texas agriculture commissioner, radio commentator and populist sparkplug, a best-selling author and winner of the Puffin/Nation Prize for Creative Citizenship. Write him at info@jimhightower.com or see www.jimhightower.com.
From The Progressive Populist, April 15, 2024
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