Jim Hightower is a Texan through and through, cowboy hat and denim and all, but he's wiry and compact. When he stands on his sense of humor, however, he can look ol' John Wayne right in the eye. One way the former Texas agriculture commissioner makes his living these days, in fact, is cutting people down to size through radio programs, speeches, a newsletter -- all of them touting true populism, which Hightower, 65, defines in part as the "decentralization of economic power."

He believes in health-care reform, 'cause he's not crazy about drug and insurance companies. He believes individuals can do their own sort of decentralization, as was the case with a pharmacist he profiled as one of 50 or so entrepreneurs he admired in his latest book, "Swim Against the Current -- Even a Dead Fish Can Go with the Flow," written with his writing partner, Susan DeMarco. He was in Chapel Hill last week doing a book promotion tied to helping Common Cause. (The populism thing he applies in all ways: "When I can help an organization like Common Cause, I like to, and we try to use independent bookstores.")

About that pharmacist. "Fellow name Chris Johnson, in Austin," Hightower said. "He was climbing the corporate ladder, but he'd fill prescriptions and hand people the bill and they'd walk away, they couldn't pay it. So he started MedSavers, a pharmacy for people who have no insurance. Now, people who would pay $59 for pills at a chain store buy them for $16, and he still makes a profit. And he's much happier."

It's all about connecting "your work with your values," Hightower says. And as witnessed by the 50 examples in the book, individuals can make a difference.

His own values were formed in a family of small business people. He was raised in Denison, Texas, and was further enlightened when he went to college, "and I sat with black kids who were from Denison but I'd never known them there, because the schools were segregated." His internal fires were stoked by the civil rights movement. Professional adventures included helping to run a presidential campaign (Sen. Fred Harris in 1976) and being editor of The Texas Observer, a biweekly publication with an attitude whose alums included the late Molly Ivins, like Hightower a person with a gift for turning a phrase and someone who was his good friend and champion.

She also shared with Hightower an antipathy for a fellow named George W. Bush.

In Hightower's case, views on the current president were developed over a long period of time and included an experience shared by many who have dared to stand in the way of the Bush family -- Hightower was targeted, successfully, by Karl Rove, the take-no-prisoners political guru once called "Bush's Brain."

Hightower had been elected in 1982 as Texas' commissioner of agriculture. He was down-home, clever and smart. Once, he says, Republican legislators tried to change his office to an appointed one and to take away from it control of pesticide regulation. (Hightower had been an advocate of organic farming.) A hearing was to be held.

"My first witness," Hightower recalled, "was Willie Nelson. My second witness was Barbara Jordan" (the late member of Congress known for her spectacular eloquence). Another was a Republican woman leader. The move was rebuffed.

But he had made enemies, and when Hightower ran for re-election, Rove went all out, including a commercial in which a flag was burning "and my picture was shown coming out of the flames." Hightower was out after two terms.

Still, Hightower had made his mark, including a highly favorable profile on "60 Minutes." Television producer Norman Lear pushed him toward taking his liberal-populist message to the airwaves, and the former commissioner did television and radio, and then had some books he wanted to write. Now he even blogs.

In the course of an hour with Hightower, several things become apparent. He is a man without bitterness who says he never liked being in politics much in the first place. ("I hated the money-raising.") He believes the system can work, but that corporate money has to be taken out of it. He believes people can make a difference, but it's harder for them to.

He is well-versed in a host of subjects and, in the course of one relatively brief interview, quotes Oscar Wilde, Willie Nelson, Bob Wills (famed Texas-swing fiddler) and Barack Obama. He has been urged to seek higher office in Texas but will never do it. He is a patriot and isn't afraid of what people say about him, nor is he afraid to speak his own mind. He is extraordinarily funny, without trying.

Jim Hightower is proof there's life after politics, and even after Karl Rove.