Author aims to empower the little guys.

Byline: Susan Palmer The Register-Guard

Progressive commentator Jim Hightower is known for his folksy style and humorous asides, but many consider his work serious business: putting more political power into the hands of ordinary citizens.

The Austin, Texas, native's current book, "Thieves in High Places: They've Stolen Our Country and It's Time to Take It Back," gives plenty of examples of little guys who've taken on such behemoths as Wal-Mart and won. In early September, it reached No. 9 on The New York Times best-seller list.

Hightower visits Eugene on Thursday as part of the Peace, Justice & Media Conference.

Here's what he had to say in a telephone interview from Washington, D.C.:

Question: You take the position in your book that well-informed Americans can be trusted to make decisions about what's best for their communities. But you also take aim at the media for failing to adequately inform. How do you advise people to stay informed enough to make good decisions?

Answer: "They have to make a search themselves. Obviously not everybody's going to do this, because people are busy. So what we do have to have is a democratized media, where there's more competition, more diversity of voice on the airwaves and indeed in the newspaper world. Conglomerate-owned media expects these days to have two things happen: The news division is going to make money and not just an honest profit but 25, 28, 30 percent. The only way you can do that, since news is so expensive, is cut the news staff. The other thing that comes with conglomerates is a distaste for coverage that would question conglomerate ownership."

Question: What sources do you use to stay informed?

Answer: "I do the conventional - The New York Times and my local paper whereever I am. Another I like is USA Today to get mainstream. But then we do regular Web searches of various publications as well as in the business press where corporate moguls brag about what they're doing. The other great source for me is the public interest world, which grinds out reams of material every day on a wide range of issues that are well-researched: Economic Policy Institute, Public Citizen, Global Trade Watch, Consumer Alert, Global Exchange, for example."

Question: Your book cites polls that show a majority of Americans support some fairly progressive ideas, but here in Oregon, voters last winter rejected a temporary tax increase to support programs helping the state's poorest residents. Meanwhile in California, residents are so unhappy over budget problems that the governor faces recall. It suggests people don't trust government to handle their money responsibly. What's the solution?

Answer: "They suspect the government might not run the programs effectively because they don't. But that doesn't mean they can't. They run most government programs through privatized entities, HMO insurance companies that are siphoning off a big chunk of the change. The Oregon vote, while it was disappointing - tons of money was put into that to cast it in the worst possible light - but you don't win the first time out. Maine has just passed universal health care coverage for all its citizens. Other states are moving in that direction. It's going to come because it's the only solution, some form of single payer that would get the insurance companies out of it."

Question: What's the biggest impediment to grass-roots organizing?

Answer: "One is that progressive people and groups are very diverse and dispersed, so it takes a lot of organizing to get us together. It's like loading frogs in a wheelbarrow. When we do get us all together, we tend to win. The second impediment is money, but it doesn't mean you have to have the same level of money as the corporate side has. You're never going to have that, but enough to get your message out. The third impediment is the lack of a sense of hope. We're divided by the powers that be who've told us that our only role is to go shopping, do your job and don't make waves. So many people lack hope. They'll believe in something themselves, but they think that nobody else does."

Question: Your book cites some examples of grass-roots groups winning individual battles, but are there any larger markers indicating that a coalition of little guys is gaining on corporate behemoths?

Answer: "What we're getting is piece by piece, a few people standing up here and there. Living wage campaigns that began very modestly and are having very little broad impact in the community or in the media, but that have grown substantially. More than 100 cities have passed living wage ordinances. Those have passed because local coalitions have been formed of unions, women, associations of Latin Americans, with church groups and small-business owners. There's also now a national Living Wage Resource Center. That's a case of a coalition getting together, connecting to real resources, with a unified message going out and defeating very big money and doing it again and again."