Conscious Choice: The Thunder of Populist Democracy

June 2002

The Thunder of Populist Democracy

by Alexis A. Maislen

Political agendas infiltrate all areas of life, from how nations relate down to the foods we ingest. Voltaire once reclined, sipping coffee in his favorite French salon, and discussed a strange "ideal" called democracy. Not so much later, suffragettes across continents abandoned their posts in the kitchen to battle for women’s right to vote. At the same time, smoky speakeasies in the United States rang with disingenuous cries for freedom from legislated morality.

Within the United States, discussions about labor, women’s rights, and the New Deal characterized the first half of the twentieth century. Then, following on the tail of the Red Scare, came sit-ins, powerful orators, and marches on Washington and Selma. In art, the Beat movement emphasized breathing in the naked moments of life and spitting back the truth, however harsh.

Those harsh truths came fast and furious as the sixties ripened public figures such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and Cesar Chavez. They were taken up and almost transformed by a hippie movement that encompassed folk, rock, and blues sensibilities in a passionate search for conscientious living. They were brought to their furthest extreme by militant Yippies, Black Panthers, and backlash FBI agents.

The seventies brought us feminism, environmentalism, and the investigative muckraking of Woodward and Bernstein. The tired, disappointed eighties saw apathy elevated to an ideal. The nineties brought the apotheosis of that ideal: individual affluence, avarice, and corporate greed highlighted some new harsh truths — and the need to set them right. Now, in the age of e-mail activism, individuals can be part of one group, then another, lending their names to the issues that call to them.

"What’s missing is a sense of movement," says Jim Hightower, Texas populist and columnist for the Nation. "There are elements of progress that are not connected. We need an excuse to come together and start a coalition building process, to see if our diverse parts can come together and build a whole."

Hightower is right. A sense of movement can’t arise of itself. It must be built — by individuals who come together and celebrate the goals they hold in common. Thus, our own Chicago, city of political machines, midwestern sensibility, and international style, will host this June 15th the Rolling Thunder Tour. An event of artistic spirit, good organic beer, and an opportunity to unify on food and farm issues, the festival in Union Park will present an opportunity to bring together consumers, activists, change-agents, and political leaders on the endangered food production system.

The Rolling Thunder "Down Home Democracy" Tour is Hightower’s brainchild: country swing with a hip hop attitude. Hightower describes the function as "a country fair with guts; a revival with reason; a concert with consciousness; a festival with funk and function." The first festival of the tour, focusing on genetically engineered food, racial profiling, and the 2000 court-decided election, was held this past March in Austin, Texas. It attracted such Progressive heroes as Michael Moore, film director of Roger and Me and TV Nation, Molly Ivins, Mike Dolen, Margerite Jones, and Jesse Jackson Jr., as well as many musical artists that sing progressive lyrics. Celebrities and ticketholders alike seemed delighted to "put the party back in politics."

A New Chautauqua

The Rolling Thunder "Down Home Democracy" Tour models itself after the political revival-fests run by Methodists in Chautauqua, New York, in 1874. The Chautauqua movement began on the shores of Lake Chautauqua, where families came together to share views on the talk of the day, to inspire and enlighten each other, and to enjoy music and food. National speakers traveled to the lakeshore to motivate, educate, and mobilize people while they listened to glee clubs and bands, enjoyed plays, dined, and engaged in open forums on public issues, literature, music, and science.

Over time, the Chautauqua movement inspired reading circles, traveling "Chautauqua circuits," and permanent "Chautauqua parks," with auditoriums, dining halls, cottages, arts and crafts centers, classrooms, and other facilities. Three parks still exist and are functioning today for speeches and gatherings, including one in Chautauqua itself and one in Boulder, Colorado. Theodore Roosevelt once called the Chautauqua "the most American thing in America."

In the days of e-mail communication, long commutes, and isolated nights in front of the television, it’s easy to become disillusioned and apathetic about the world’s great problems. But Hightower’s Rolling Thunder is nourishing a new breed of activism — or reviving an old, heirloom breed — that just might bring us back together. Combining the old methods with new tools, the Rolling Thunder movement has the potential to revitalize democracy from the ground up.

Hightower believes the true political spectrum is "not right to left but top to bottom." He’s the leading voice for 50 percent of the public who are fed up with Washington. His newsletter, The Lowdown, radio commentaries, and daily syndicated column challenge "the greedheads of Wall Street and boneheads of Washington." Chicago’s own Studs Terkel introduces Hightower with "Thank God for Jim Hightower. Instead of leaving us stewing in anger and despair, he rallies us with stories of our own history and of our own neighbors, inspiring us to take charge of our own democratic destiny. And he leaves us laughing and thinking at the same time." Rolling Thunder is meant to operate along the same lines. It will rally small business, consumers, working families, environmentalists, and "plain folk" to work together.

"There is a huge movement out there of 2.6 million progressive groups and organizations," concurs Darci Andresen, national field coordinator for the Rolling Thunder Tour, in Oakland, California. "We want to encourage people to work for action and coalition building. In my general travels around, there are a lot of people doing great progressive work but not getting together and fighting for fundamentally increased democratic power."

Andresen thinks festivals like Rolling Thunder might just inspire people to recognize their common goals. "Festivals are non-intimidating. A country fair is recognizable, fun, and there is a lot to do for families. We want to bring in more people besides the choir. We want to mobilize people, recognize the commonality and common struggle between labor, religion, people of color, environmentalists," said Andresen. She hopes to create something that mainstream suburbanites and city-dwellers will want to engage in.

"This will be fun, not protesting: a place for people to rejoice. It will integrate action with fun," she said. "We will have fun and show people how to effect change."

Protecting Our Food Supply

The June festival in Chicago will concentrate on the link between environmental health and our food supply. It hopes to buck the trend in favor of agribusiness. Agriculture, notes Andresen, is "fundamental to life." Yet she observes that "we’re losing farmers to agribusiness, which has taken more and more control of seed planting, production, and distribution, and left no room for competition. We are making our food supply vulnerable to bio-warfare. The more we consolidate the food supply, the more we increase the threat." By supporting family farms and organic farming, she suggests, we support both safety and flavor.

In keeping with the food theme, local food purveyors such as Organic Valley Farm and Natural Needs will serve free samples of organic food. Organic food, beer, and wine will also be available for purchase. And Ben & Jerry’s will give away lots of free ice cream.

Building an Activist’s Toolbox

Part of the fun, of course, will be in discovering a panoply of likeminded groups. The festival will include activism tents with workshops on talking to the media, letter writing areas, e-mail activism centers, and salon discussion with others in attendance. Workshops by non-profit organizations that work on environmental, food, and labor issues will be held for participants. Some Rolling Thunder sponsoring organizations are: GE Food Alert, the Organic Consumers Association, the UNITE union, TruMajority (Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities), United for a Fair Economy, American Metals Association, Campus Greens, Chicago Media Watch, Utne Reader, Public Citizen, Sustain, Unitarian Universalists, Mother Jones, and many more. In all, the grounds will sport 150 booths. Workshops will be held on genetically engineered food, bovine growth hormone, factory farms, how to influence regulatory agencies, and effective strategies for policies and issues. The Illinois state budget crisis will also be discussed, along with other issues framed in the context of usurpation of power by corporations.

Remember how your parents used to claim that learning could be fun? The festival’s array of games may fulfill that claim once and for all. At the chilling "Farmers’ Market of the Future, " for example, you can shop at the mock supermarket of the mass-produced. You also can get a good look at price discrepancies between what farmers get for their product and what we consumers pay. Other festival games on the theme of "Budget Priorities" have such eyebrow-raising titles as Dunk-A-Lobbyist, Test Your Strength, and Knock-A-Nuke.

Artistic Empowerment

Rolling Thunder is designed to use entertainment and the arts to heal and empower citizens. Musicians, artists, puppeteers, and clowns have signed on to show us how to laugh at ourselves and begin the healing of our planet. Some artists will even tailor some of their lyrics to the issues of the festival. Vegan Erykah Badu has signed on to come this June. And Dr. Patch Adams will bring along clowning workshops from his Gesundheit Institute. At the Austin event a member of Hightower’s staff overheard a small boy whisper, "Daddy, wow this is funner than I thought it would be."

The fun is not just for kids, though. A host of local Chicago talent such as the Funky Wordsmiths, Maggie Brown, Wilco, and Billy Bragg will also be entertaining. MTV’s Rock the Vote plans to set up a booth to register voters. Dance troupes and ethnic drum circles will add movement and a motivational beat to the atmosphere in the park. "To change things, you have to affect people from the heart," says Andresen. "People are affected strongly by music."

Quilting and arts and crafts will show how art can be used as a tool for empowerment. Massage and acupuncture sessions will be available. And there will be a space especially for children.

Continuing the Fight Every Day

Awareness, exposure to the issues, and funky music are all great for a day, but a day does not a movement make. For that reason, Hightower aims to begin developing a new national food policy at Rolling Thunder. Through salon discussions citizens, activists, local farmers, and people in the food production field will outline guiding principles of sustainability, wholesome food, family farm and small business support, and fair wages for people involved at all levels. The constituencies in Chicago will then take a draft back to their groups for refinement. Eventually, this grassroots food policy will be taken to local, state, and federal officials.

At the festival, contact information will be shared, and opportunities to sign up for listservs and mailing lists will be plentiful. Monthly coalition building meetings will be set up to discuss ideas that grew out of the festival. Workshops will outline small steps citizens can take in their homes every day or once a month. "I Pledge" cards will be handed out and collected to remind citizens what they pledged they’d do to contribute to the issue that interested them most.

Most of all, Hightower hopes people will bottle the spirit of community at the festival and use it to foster potluck discussions year-round.

"We are taking back the power within the concept of fun and community," he says. "Politics should not be a boring duty that you get involved with in the last month of a political campaign. It should be based upon community fun. This is not just high-tech but high-touch politics."

To reach the writer, contact Alexis at aamaislen@aol.com.

Get More Info

For more information or to reserve tickets, please call Darci Andresen at 312-738-6123. Tickets can also be ordered online at Rolling Thunder’s Web site. Ticket prices for non-profits and student groups are $10 per person pre-ordered at bulk-rate; at the door $25. Children under 12 are free. The Rolling Thunder Tour festival will be held in Union Park on June 15th. Union Park is at Lake Street and Ashland Avenue, directly off the Ashland Green Line el stop, near the United Center, which offers ample space to park. Doors open at 9:00 am, with events continuing throughout the day until 11:00 pm. Keep checking the Rolling Thunder Web site for late information or changes. There may be a continuation of Rolling Thunder on June 16th in conjunction with several local churches to discuss the spiritual and moral side of these issues.

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