BY ARIA SELIGMANN
Raisin’ Hell
Molly Ivins on politics in the U.S. of A.
M
olly Ivins, syndicated columnist for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, good ol’ Texas girl,
witty political pundit, former co-editor of the Texas Observer, three-time Pulitzer Prize
finalist and author of the bestselling Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She? and with Lou
Dubose, Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush, has a new book out,
Bushwhacked: Life in George W. Bush’s America, also written with Dubose. Bushwhacked outlines
the underreported goings-on of the Bush administration, ultimately drawing the connections
between public policy and people’s lives.
On a sweeping book tour to promote Bushwhacked, Ivins will appear in Eugene on Oct. 25 as
part of the Peace, Justice and Media conference presented by the Justice Not War Coalition. Eugene
Weekly caught up with her earlier this week during a quick hotel respite in Seattle. Despite a gru-
eling schedule, Ivins remains positive and full of humor, and always an inspiration.
EW: What’s been the response
to your tour for Bushwhacked?
MI: Every single venue has
been absolutely jammed.
People are really hungry to hear
someone more or less stand up
and say, ‘This emperor isn’t
wearing any clothes.’
EW: You say in your intro that if
only people had read Shrub, released before
the 2000 presidential election, all this — this
current political situation — never would have
happened. Is Jean Dixon’s job threatened by your
ability to predict the future?
MI: No. (laughing.) A great question. I think
she’s safe.
EW: You’ve often said that Texas is a labora-
tory for bad government. In your book, you note
that Bush left Texas with tax cuts for the rich that
left the state unable to provide basic services,
writing, “Those of us who knew the president
when he was governor of a low tax, low service,
no regulation state are very seriously not amazed
by what he has done in Washington” Welcome to
USA 2003. What would you expect next?
MI: I think a lot of political commentators
were surprised Bush started governing so far to
the right. We felt that was not implied by the
2000 campaign. He’s been coming down hard
ever since. It does seem clear that they are out to
fundamentally alter the course we’ve been on,
rolling it back to what I suspect is beyond the
New Deal — to before that. They seem to be
quite serious about ultimately getting rid of the
W!
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progressive income tax entirely,
and also Social Security. It’s
not a hidden right wing
agenda, it’s all out there.
EW: U.S. economics are
also far to the right. Looking at
corporate pandering, you write
that during the Eisenhower era,
corporations paid an average of 25
percent of the federal tax bill. In 2000, only
10 percent and by 2001, it was down to 7 percent.
What do you predict it will be by 2003?
MI: Again, I’m not in the Jean Dixon busi-
ness. It’s not so much that we need to increase
taxes but to collect those already on the books.
What’s extraordinary and astonishing is the exo-
dus of corporations to offshore banks, to the
Bahamas and Caymans, using post office ad-
dresses that are just maildrops to avoid taxes.
And this administration doesn’t seem to think
there’s anything wrong with giving corporations
that pay no taxes government contracts. Last
week, the New York Times reported that the
Senate Finance Committee is now considering a
$100 billion — that’s more than needed for the
Iraq War, right? — tax recess for corporations
who make money abroad — they can bring it
back without paying taxes. You might think that
would encourage corporations to keep exporting
jobs and operations abroad.
EW: Corporations making good isn’t any-
thing new. The AP reported last week that
Houston-based Halleburton has been charging
the U.S. Army between $1.62 and $1.70 per gal-
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well know the drill: Tell people anywhere on the
political spectrum that the system has been cor-
rupted by money, which is quite obvious now
that big business is influencing politics, and
when people get stirred up and respond, the sys-
tem responds to them. I’m always optimistic to
the point of idiocy myself.
EW: What you write about in Bushwhacked
is what the mainstream media ignore. How else
can the message get out to the red states?
MI: I think there is a real stirring of genuine
unease edging over into anger as people realize
we’re not headed in the right direction here.
EW: Do you think getting online and sending
mass e-mails is enough? Has the Internet diluted
people’s passion for direct action? The armchair
activist can send one e-mail and think, ‘I partici-
pated in democracy.’ And that’s that. No protest
in the streets.
MI: I’m a great believer in raising hell.
Anyway, the oldest piece of advise is: Write your
elected representatives. It works. Everybody al-
ways thinks, ‘What can I do? Well, I sent an e-
mail.’ It’s a beginning.
EW: What’s your biggest glimmer of hope
for the future of our country?
MI: I’m always optimistic. I think it can all be
fixed. I know we tend to get sold on simple solu-
tions. We think term limits will fix everything.
What really needs to be fixed is money.
Campaign finance. When people get elected that
way they got no one to dance with but the people.
People can’t afford to ignore what’s being done
to our country. There’s no way to have a life in
this nation and not be involved with what’s going
on.
EW: What’s the one message you’d like to
leave people with?
MI: Raise hell. It’s fun and it should be fun. I
try to convince people you can actually have a
whale of a good time trying to make the world a
better place.
ew
Ivins will give two lectures on Saturday, Oct. 25: at 3 pm and
7:30 pm (this one sold out) at the McDonald Theatre. Her
book will be available for sale. Following the evening
lecture, a dinner/reception and booksigning will follow at
Cozmic Pizza’s new location at 8th and Charnelton. Tickets
for the 3 pm Saturday lecture are $10 adv., for dinner: $25
adv., $30 at the door. Tix available at Tsunami, Black Sun,
Foolscap, Mother Kali’s, Star Gate and Book Mine book
stores, the UO ticket office and the Justice Not War office at
454 Willamette, 343-8548.
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Open House
lon for gas when Iraqis pay between 4 and 15
cents.
MI: The technical term for that is goldplating.
One irony is that there are already enormous
complaints from Iraqis themselves, saying, ‘We
could have fixed this place up for much cheaper;
why didn’t you ask us?’ We’re also importing
workers from Southeast Asia because they are
cheaper labor than the Iraqis.
EW: Let’s turn our attention back to ex-
ploited workers on our own turf. With so many
folks suffering in the current economy and serv-
ices being slashed, that seems fuel for rebellion
to me. So, where’s the protest?
MI: Where’s Bob Dole when you need him?
Where’s the outrage? I’m not sure we haven’t al-
ready watched it start in California. The result
was odd, alright. I mean Arnold, well, why the
hell not?
EW: You’re coming here for the Peace,
Justice and Media Conference. So let’s talk shop
for a minute. How can journalists do a better job?
MI: Some things are so old they’re new
again. Let’s write a book showing policy really
matters to people. It used to be understood when
I was a political reporter you looked at ‘Here’s
what the government is going to do and here’s
how it’s going to affect you.’ That last part has
gotten lost. Even people affected to the point of
crisis are not making the connections. They are
not interested in politics, they think ‘There’s
nothing I can do.’
EW: What hope do you see for people fixing
things by making those connections, connections
that will raise the power of the masses?
MI: One thing that’s quite striking is when
you look at the Democratic candidate who’s con-
sistently striking a chord. That’s Howard Dean.
He’s genuinely angry.
EW: How do we use that anger in a positive
way, to beat back the big money, which this time
will be bigger than ever? How do we use people
power to beat money power?
MI: Like most people in my business, I look
closely at money in politics. That’s quite often
the deciding factor. Bush’s contributions will go
over $200 million. When we realized that, we
kind of rolled our eyes and thought, ‘Well there
goes that one.’ But that judgment was probably
premature. Bush is beatable. I think we all pretty
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EUGENE WEEKLY OCTOBER 23, 2003 11