Last week, Hightower had the opportunity to introduce a webinar training with Blue Horizon Texas for rural progressives who are thinking about running for office, featuring elected officials from the Outrun Coalition. We thought you’d enjoy this short little talk — happy Sunday to you all!

Thanks for allowing a scruffy Texas populist like myself come in here and be a part of your terrific organizing session, the nuts and bolts session to unbolt America from the plutocratic, autocratic, theocratic, and kleptocratic nuts who have seized control of our government.

Your examples of rural organizing, of mobilizing, of winning is exactly what our Democratic Party needs, not to take America back. That's what the Republicans want to do. They want to take us back to about 1850. Rather, to move America forward, move America forward on our core values of economic fairness, social justice, equal opportunity for all people.

So my unsolicited advice is simply three things.

One, run. You can't win if you're not even in the race. So start with that. And y'all are doing a terrific example of that.

Secondly, run as unabashed, unapologetic Democrats. That's what America wants us to be. Be Democrats and really mean it. The powers that be are knocking down the middle class. They're holding down the poor. They're tearing down our democratic rights. People are experiencing that, and they want us to address it with them. And by the powers that be, I mean the six Bs. The bosses, the bankers, the billionaires, big shots, bastards, and bullshitters, who are running roughshod over us, treating us like they're top dogs and we're just a bunch of fire hydrants out here in the countryside.

And thirdly, I would say persevere. You don't always win the first time out. Think of Bernie Sanders, for example. He ran for mayor seven times in Burlington, Vermont before he became mayor. You've got to stick with it, and that means not just sticking with a particular candidate, but building a movement, building a presence in every district in our country.

I'll leave you with this thought from Willie Nelson. who once said to me, "Hightower, the early bird might get the worm, but it's the second mouse that gets the cheese." Think about that and let's stick together, move together and win together.

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