🔥 You showed up. Now take heart — and fight back.
72 new subscribers, 100,000 views, and a whole lot of fight in us
Hey Lowdowners, Deanna here!
Last week, Hightower did something he rarely does: he asked directly. And you showed up.
72 new paid subscribers joined the Lowdown in the past week — including 15 who went all in at the founding level. We are (clearly) not a giant media operation; we are three people with no big money backing and a lot of opinions. Numbers like these make a real difference in what we can do.
Here’s what some of you said when you signed up:
“I have been a subscriber since your print days, and have always enjoyed your humor and good sense in commenting on timely and important topics. “ —Gloria
“I love your unvarnished language and humor. The clarity of your perceptions cuts through all the crap we’re otherwise fed and makes me feel like there’s a sane voice in the wilderness I desperately need.” —Ann
“You make me proud to be Texan.” —Rebecca
Meanwhile, something happened this week that shows exactly why this kind of support matters.
We posted a clip from our subscribers-only Happy Hour — Hightower talking about what’s really happening in Texas politics — and it took off! 100,000 views on Instagram, and around 1,000 new followers. Plus, thousands of shares! People who had never heard of Hightower, plus people who hadn’t known he’s still fighting like hell out here, suddenly hearing him say:
“We are not a right-wing state. We are not a Republican state. We’re a non-voting state.”
That clip exists because paid subscribers fund the Happy Hours where Hightower tells these stories. Your subscriptions helped create the thing that 100,000 people watched this week. That’s how independent media works — a community of people who believe in something funds the work, and then the work reaches people who need to hear it.
That’s organizing, and our hearts absolutely sing when we get to experience it so directly.
If you’ve been thinking about joining and haven’t yet — the spring rate of $40/year is still available. No pressure, no countdown timer, no guilt. Just an open door.
And if you’re already a paid subscriber — thank you, truly. You keep us going, both literally and spiritually, and we are so grateful to be in community with you.
Keep pushing, y’all.
— Deanna
Hey Jim! Hey Deanna! I just finished a book, NYT bestseller fof whatever that’s worth, called WHITE RURAL RAGE. Authors seem to say that rural white majority have no idea what to ask their reps for and are filled with rage from being brainwashed by right wing media, mostly fox. They need someone to help them wake up. They’re probably already doing that now, (witness the changing political climate there in Texas now), but y’all are in the perfect place now to create the organization to urge them on!
Keep growing! Your voice is OUR voice. I’m a proud subscriber since your print days too. Thanks Jim & Deanna for all you’re doing to defend our Democracy!