SAT. MAR. 23, 2008

Being progressive used to be fun: Taking drugs, wearing strange/no clothes, giving weird names to your pets and kids like Dharma or Echo, stuffing flowers in rifle barrels, voting for Pat Paulsen, generally having a sense of humor. Somewhere, very likely in the overachieving Eighties, progressives became oppressives with a mind-numbing array of politically correct strictures. Now we all feel a little tinge of guilt when we eat grapes, drink hormone heavy milk, gorge ourselves on beefy barbecue, corporate manufactured pork and chickens that never see the light of day. The progressives are right of course – we should feel guilty, but when it comes to throwing a party it’s like…bummer dude. Here’s some good news: Big Jim Hightower and the Rolling Thunder Down Home Democracy Tour are coming to “put the party back into politics.” This Saturday, the Travis County Expo Center will be packed with partying progressives like Molly Ivins, Jesse Jackson Junior, Michael Moore, Granny D getting their brew on, and listening to tunes by a slew of local musicians including but not limited to: Michelle Shocked, David Garza, Marcia Ball, MC Overlord, the Therapy Sisters and Leeann Atherton. Parents will be both delighted and horrified that there are kids’ activities as well as clowns and puppets, but the main thing to remember is that this is about grassroots democracy, so the dating pool should be deep and long.