VOX POPULIST by JIM HIGHTOWER
AFTER THE ELECTION, A NOTE OF HOPE
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New York Herald, “we will go to Washington and assassinate him before his Inauguration.” It was a campaign of demonic fury. Mobs attacked and wrecked Lincoln’s campaign offices in Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, Maryland, Populist author, and ten Southern states wouldn’t public speaker, and even put his name on the ballot. radio commentator JIM HIGHTOWER Despite the vitriol and violence, writes The Lincoln won, stayed calm yet firm Hightower Lowdown, in a time of dangerous turmoil, a monthly newsletter and not only held a bitterly divided chronicling the nation together, but expanded our ongoing fights by democratic ideals and advanced America’s ordinary the possibilities for ordinary peopeople against ple to achieve them. He didn’t wear rule by plutocratic a silly red cap arrogantly proclaimelites. Sign up at ing “Make America Great Again”— HightowerLowdown he did it. Indeed, he died for it. .org. The point is that Lincoln didn’t preserve the noble idea of America by rewriting the law, but by altering the culture, pushing people to act on their better natures. So, 160 years after that toxic election, Lincoln didn’t preserve the noble idea here’s another one, and there’s no of America by rewriting the law, but by Lincoln in sight. That means that We the People have to do the healaltering the culture, pushing the people ing ourselves. to act on their better natures. Good grief, cry many progressives. How has America turned so It has been the worst and most far to the right that a narcissistic, divisive election ever, right? wannabe-dictator like Trump was No. That horror belongs to the even in the running? 1860 contest, a four-way race that But wait—aside from a miLincoln won with 39.8 percent of nority of racist, xenophobic, mithe vote. Rabid racism, furious sogynistic voters, plus a bunch of intimidation of voters, blatant uber-wealthy corporate profiteers manipulation of ballots, personal making a killing from his richattacks so vicious they’d even make man’s agenda—many of Trump’s Trump cringe, and daily death rank-and-file voters are not rightthreats not only from the goofball wingers at all. To see evidence of “proud boys” of the day, but from this, look at the multitude of overtSouthern elected officials and es- ly progressive ballot issues that tablishment newspapers. won majority support on Novem“If Lincoln is elected,” a Virgin- ber 3, even in so-called “Trump ia member of Congress told the Country.” any years ago, literary critic Dorothy Parker skewered an unfortunate author with the apocryphal line: “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” That’s how a lot of us feel about the 2020 presidential election, distinguished by an incumbent who is so self-centered, incompetent, and both mentally and morally unsteady that he’s more dangerous than a baby who’s gotten hold of a hammer. Trump, swinging wildly, tried to win by demolishing the truth, shattering the law, smashing basic rights, annihilating fair play, trashing the common good, busting up social trust, splintering justice, and . . . well, generally eradicating the egalitarian principles that unify Americans into a functioning democracy.
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• Fifty-two percent of Arizona voters said yes to a tax surcharge on incomes above $250,000 a year, specifically to raise teacher pay and recruit more teachers. • A whopping 78 percent of Oregon voters approved a populist proposition to put strict controls on the corrupting power of big-money corporate donations in elections. • Sixty-one percent of Floridians voted to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2026, a working-class advance vehemently opposed by corporate giants and rightwing groups. • Fifty-seven percent voted yes on a Colorado provision requiring corporations to let employees earn paid time off for medical and family needs. • Between 54 and 73 percent of voters in six states—including in such conservative bastions as Arizona, Mississippi, and South Dakota—approved initiatives liberalizing and even legalizing marijuana and other drug use. • Plus, there were some big symbolic victories, such as Mississippi replacing a Confederate symbol on its state flag with a magnolia blossom, and the people of Nebraska overwhelmingly voting to amend their constitution to excise an antiquated provision authorizing slavery as a punishment for certain crimes! The hope that resides in these progressive policy positions is the prospect that a truly great American majority might yet be forged— not around some politician, but around our people’s basic shared values of fairness, justice, and equal opportunity for all. ◆
