Jesse Jackson

The Reverend Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. (born October 8, 1941) is a civil rights and political activist in the United States. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988.

Presidential candidate

In 1984, Jackson became the second black American (after Shirley Chisholm) to mount a nationwide campaign for President of the United States, running as a Democrat. A major controversy erupted during the early stages of the race, when Jackson was reported making off-the-record remarks in which he referred to Jews as "hymies" and to New York City as "Hymietown," remarks for which he later apologized. In the primaries, Jackson, who had been written-off by pundits as a fringe candidate with little chance at winning the nomination, surprised many when he took third place behind Senator Gary Hart and former Vice President Walter Mondale, who eventually won the nomination. Jackson garnered 3.5 million votes and won five primaries, all in the South.

Related Topics:
1984 - Shirley Chisholm - President of the United States - Democrat - Jews - New York City - Gary Hart - Vice President - Walter Mondale

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Four years later, in 1988, Jackson once again offered himself as a candidate for the nomination. This time, his successes in the past made him seem a more credible candidate, and he was both better-financed and better-organized. Although most people didn't seem to believe that he had a serious chance at winning, Jackson once again exceeded expectations as he more than doubled his previous results, capturing 6.9 million votes and winning eleven primaries. Briefly, after he won 55% of the vote in the Michigan primary, he was considered the frontrunner for the nomination, as he surpassed all the other candidates in total number of pledged delegates. In the end, however, he lost the nomination, coming a close second to Governor Michael Dukakis of Massachusetts, the eventual nominee.

Related Topics:
1988 - Michigan - Delegates - Michael Dukakis - Massachusetts

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In both races, Jackson ran on what many considered to be a very liberal platform. Declaring that he wanted to create a "Rainbow Coalition" of various minority groups, including African-Americans, Hispanics, the poor and working poor, women, and homosexuals, as well as White progressives who fit into none of those categories, Jackson ran on a platform that included:

Related Topics:
Liberal - Rainbow Coalition - Minority - African-Americans - Hispanics - Poor - Working poor - Women - Homosexuals - White - Progressives

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• creating a WPA-style program to rebuild America's infrastructure and provide jobs to all Americans,
• reprioritizing the War on Drugs to focus less on mandatory minimum sentences for drug users (which he views as racially-biased) and more on harsher punishments for money-laundering bankers and others who are part of the "supply" end of "supply and demand,"
• reversing Reaganomics-inspired tax cuts for the richest ten percent of Americans and using the money to finance social welfare programs,
• cutting the budget of the Department of Defense by as much as fifteen percent over the course of his administration,
• declaring Apartheid-era South Africa to be a rogue nation,
• instituting an immediate nuclear freeze and beginning disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union,
• creating a single-payer system of universal health care,
• ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment,
• increasing federal funding for lower-level public education and providing free community college to all,
• applying more strict enforcement of the Voting Rights Act, and
• supporting the formation of a Palestinian state.

With the exception of a resolution to implement sanctions against South Africa for its Apartheid policies, none of these stances made it into the party's platform in either 1984 or 1988.

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Although Jackson now considers himself a liberal, his views where once that of a moderate-conservative. Jackson once endorsed the anti-abortion Hyde Amendment and wrote an article in a 1977 National Right to Life Committee News report:

Related Topics:
Hyde Amendment - National Right to Life Committee

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:"There are those who argue that the right to privacy is of higher order than the right to life ... that was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside your right to be concerned.

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:"What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience? What kind of a person and what kind of a society will we have 20 years hence if life can be taken so casually? It is that question, the question of our attitude, our value system, and our mind-set with regard to the nature and worth of life itself that is the central question confronting mankind. Failure to answer that question affirmatively may leave us with a hell right here on earth."

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