By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
I’m a fan of Texas populist Jim Hightower, a man cut from the same cloth as dearly departed Texans Molly Ivins and her lifelong friend, Governor Ann Richards. Hightower is a man of the people, driven out of Texas government by its uniquely rabid brand of conservatism. He recently wrote a blog piece entitled, “Has The United States Gone Crazy?”
His answer — yes and no — illustrates the dichotomy of our social conflicts but reflects the hope of our growing, if fledgling, movement toward populism. Nothing less can counter the sweep of political radicalism, corporate control, and the staggering political influence of family trusts that have turned us into an oligarchy.
Yeah, crazy. This was the week that a three-year-old kid in Arizona shot and killed his 18-month-old brother with a neighbor’s gun, a five-year-old in Kentucky shot and killed his two-year-old sister, and a little three-year-old girl in Utah fatally shot her two-year-old brother. This is the week when an emotionally disturbed young man in Southern California stabbed his three college roommates to death prior to a shooting spree that killed three more and injured 13, before turning the gun on himself. Despite multiple warnings, from postings on social media to parental alerts to the police, the young man was able to legally purchase multiple semiautomatic handguns and hundreds of rounds of ammo. This is also the week that conservative deep-thinker, Palin-supporter and failed political candidate, Joe the Plumber, responded to the moving plea for the end of gun violence from the father of a Santa Barbara shooting victim, by tweeting “Your dead kids don’t trump my constitutional rights.”