{"id":1991700,"date":"2023-08-05T05:12:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-05T09:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-jesse-jackson-remade-the-democratic-party\/"},"modified":"2023-08-05T05:16:18","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T09:16:18","slug":"how-jesse-jackson-remade-the-democratic-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-jesse-jackson-remade-the-democratic-party\/","title":{"rendered":"Jesse Jackson&#8217;s Democratic Party Transformation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">10<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-jesse-jackson-remade-the-democratic-party%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1991700&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>Reviving the Legacy \u2063of Jesse \u200cJackson: \u200bA Journey Through Democratic Politics<\/h2>\n<p>On July 16, Vice President Kamala Harris\u200c delivered the keynote\u2062 address at the Rainbow People United to Serve Humanity (PUSH) \u200bCoalition Convention. Standing behind the lectern at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, \u2062she spoke primarily about the organization\u2019s founder and former leader, Jesse Jackson, who had just\u200d stepped down after more than five decades at the helm.<\/p>\n<p>Harris\u200d reminisced\u200c about Jackson\u2019s influence on Democratic Party politics and &#8220;the power of the \u200bcoalition.&#8221; The vice president was so inspired by him, \u200bshe said, that in the late \u20621980s she drove\u2063 a car with a &#8220;Jesse \u200bJackson for President&#8221; bumper sticker \u200bon it. The two later collaborated with \u2063Jackson on issues \u200dfrom criminal justice \u200dreform to voting rights.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;And so, in\u2062 the spirit \u2064of your ongoing work, Rev, I do believe \u2062that it is critically important that we who have \u2064been\u200d inspired by your leadership take on our responsibility to see\u2063 clearly \u2063the moment we are now in,&#8221;\u200d Harris said as she turned towards Jackson.\u2062 &#8220;And let us acknowledge \u200cthat the fight is more important than ever.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>The story\u2063 of Jackson\u2019s life, as Harris made clear, is in many ways the \u2062story of the Democratic Party over the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/macarthur-the-end-of-frivolous-religion\/\" title=\"MacArthur: The End of Frivolous Religion?\">past half century<\/a>. Once seen as a far-left, race-baiting \u200danti-Semite, Jackson is now a mainstream figure in Democratic \u2064politics. So\u2064 too with the Rev. Al Sharpton, whose anti-Semitism has been memory-holed as he has been <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/latest-news\/the-adls-disgrace\/\">rehabilitated as \u200da respected clergyman and conscience of the Democratic party on MSNBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;One way to measure Jackson\u2019s success is to look at where those who worked for Jackson \u200dended\u2062 up,&#8221; former two-time Democratic National\u200c Committee chair Donna Brazile, who worked on Jackson\u2019s 1984 presidential campaign, told \u200dthe <em>Washington Free Beacon<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Jackson\u2019s &#8220;rainbow coalition&#8221; of minorities, gays and \u2064lesbians, and whites with graduate degrees \u2063now \u200dforms the bedrock\u2063 of a party that for many \u2064years mostly \u200ctolerated \u2063him as a necessary \u200devil.<\/p>\n<p>At one time, even left-wing magazines like the\u200b <em><a href=\"https:\/\/newrepublic.com\/article\/133881\/curse-jesse\">New Republic<\/a><\/em>  and \u200b <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dissentmagazine.org\/article\/why-not-jackson\/\">Dissent<\/a><\/em>  deemed his\u200b rhetoric and \u2063prescriptions for tackling the &#8220;unfinished agenda of \u2062social justice&#8221; too extreme, with\u200c the \u2064 <em>New Republic<\/em> writing shortly after George H.W. \u2063Bush\u2019s victory in 1988 that Jackson \u200bembodied &#8220;the\u200b excesses of liberalism&#8221; that plagued the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<p>Now 81 years old, \u2063Jackson can see the ideas from his\u2062 failed presidential runs in 1984 and 1988 \u2062embraced everywhere\u2062 Democrats hold power. From a push for reparations in California, to fights <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1988\/01\/19\/us\/in-dispute-on-bias-stanford-is-likely-to-alter-western-culture-program.html\">over curricula<\/a> on\u2062 college and high school campuses\u2014Jackson was a central figure \u200cin the push to expunge Stanford University\u2019s introductory humanities program on Western Civilization\u2014to a burgeoning anti-Israel \u200bcaucus on Capitol Hill, Jackson\u2019s views have prevailed.<\/p>\n<p>It wasn\u2019t always this way. In 1986, then-Senator Joe Biden urged Democratic \u200cvoters to &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/archive\/politics\/1986\/07\/03\/biden-in-dig-at-jackson-urges-black-white-unity\/dcef86d2-e27f-42cc-ac56-7b7b68006319\/\">reject<\/a>&#8221; Jackon\u2019s message \u2063of black radicalism and the idea &#8220;that whites and Catholics and Jews\u2064 no longer care\u200c about your problems.&#8221; \u200bEven after gaining a foothold in party politics, Jackson found himself \u2063largely iced out of both the Clinton and Obama White\u2064 Houses, the latter of which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2013\/08\/15\/us\/politics\/jesse-jackson-jr-sentenced-to-30-months.html\">indicted<\/a> Jackson\u2019s son and political heir-apparent, \u2063Jesse Jackson Jr., in\u200b 2013 for fraud.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;He\u2019s always been a bullshit artist,&#8221; said Martin Peretz,\u2064 the former <em>New Republic<\/em> editor in chief and publisher throughout the\u2062 1980s and 1990s. &#8220;But\u2064 Jackson developed\u2062 a type of politics where people were afraid of him.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Jackson\u2063 predicted the country\u2019s demographic changes would favor the Democratic Party and\u2063 understood that race would become a defining feature of its \u200bpolitics. When campus radicals at places like Stanford were considered politically toxic, \u200dJackson <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1988\/01\/19\/us\/in-dispute-on-bias-stanford-is-likely-to-alter-western-culture-program.html\">led them in protest<\/a>: \u2062&#8221;Hey hey, ho ho, Western culture&#8217;s got to go.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>At home and abroad,\u2062 Jackson endorsed once-radical ideas that have now taken hold in the Democratic mainstream. When Rep. Ilhan Omar (D., \u2064Minn.) demonizes Israel as an &#8220;Apartheid state&#8221; and cozies up to \u2062pro-Palestinian extremists, she is making good\u2063 on Jackson\u2019s threat\u2014delivered in 1979 at Israel\u2019s Ben Gurion International Airport\u2014that her faction \u200cin\u2063 the Democratic Party is &#8220;a political reality that Israel\u200b should not ignore.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>It was Jackson, \u2062too, \u200cwho initially brought the concept of \u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/democrats\/squad-member-introduces-bill-demanding-reparations-now\/\">reparations<\/a> for African Americans into presidential politics. The \u200bdescendants\u2063 of slaves needed more\u2064 job\u200c security, Jackson said\u200d in\u2062 1982. &#8220;Full employment by itself isn\u2019t enough. We \u2064already \u200dhad\u2062 that\u2014on the slave \u200cplantations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And it was \u2062Jackson \u200bwho used his platform \u2062to\u2064 invoke the legacy of the civil rights movement as \u200da justification for increased federal spending and the new legal regime \u2064created\u2062 by\u200c the \u200cCivil Rights Act that followed. When those same \u2062welfare programs and affirmative action laws have failed to bring about racial and economic equality, Democrats today follow\u200d Jackson in arguing\u2063 that \u2064this only proves the need for more spending and legal protections.<\/p>\n<h3>The Rise of Jesse Jackson<\/h3>\n<p>Jackson, a \u2062South\u2064 Carolina native, introduced himself to the nation on \u200cApril 5, 1968, when he\u200d appeared on NBC\u2019s \u200c <em>Today Show<\/em> telling Americans that Martin Luther \u200cKing \u2064Jr. &#8220;died \u200din my arms.&#8221; He\u2062 repeated\u2063 that story for seven\u2063 years \u2064until a Chicago reporter published interviews with members\u2062 of\u2063 King\u2019s entourage, all of whom disputed Jackson\u2019s\u2063 tale.<\/p>\n<p>In reality, \u2063they said, Jackson ran from the \u2062motel where King \u2062was killed\u2014the Lorraine Motel in Memphis,\u2063 Tenn.\u2014as \u200bsoon as shots rang \u2063out. The almost biblical story that Jackson used as proof that he was King\u2019s rightful heir was part of his realization that racial \u200bpolitics were his ticket to success.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;My guess is that Jesse smeared the blood on his \u200cshirt after getting it off the balcony,&#8221; said\u2062 Chicago \u200cmusician Ben Branch, who was with King when he died. &#8220;All I can say is\u2064 that Jesse didn\u2019t touch \u200chim.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>In the ensuing decades, Jackson made\u200b the case that bigotry held blacks back in\u200c every\u2064 corner of American society, \u2064citing his own experience.<\/p>\n<p>A\u200c star \u200chigh school athlete, \u2062Jackson won a football scholarship to play quarterback for the University of Illinois but \u2064was relegated to\u200b a lineman position after playing a single season. Jackson would go on to say the school told him &#8220;blacks could not\u200b be quarterbacks&#8221; when,\u2064 in reality, he was replaced by \u200canother black player. His former coach later blamed Jackson\u2019s \u200bpoor grades for the switch.<\/p>\n<p>Drawn to the political machine, Jackson moved to\u200c Chicago\u200d in 1966 and was taken\u200d under the wing of Chicago Theological Seminary president Howard Schomer. There, Jackson learned from\u200c Schomer how\u2064 to boycott businesses and demand they adhere\u200b to\u200c &#8220;corporate \u2063social responsibility&#8221; policies. A favored strategy was buying small amounts of \u200cstock and then\u2062 demanding political concessions at shareholder meetings.<\/p>\n<p>Years before controversial transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney was\u2064 born, Jackson organized the first boycott\u200c of Anheuser-Busch\u200d in 1982 \u200cover their lack of corporate diversity. \u200dThe beer company eventually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1982\/09\/07\/us\/around-the-nation-boycott-of-busch-beers-sought-by-jesse-jackson.html\">agreed<\/a> to\u2062 establish\u200c a nearly $16 million fund\u200d to &#8220;help finance minority-owned \u2062beer \u200bdistributorships and to work with a black university \u200dto detect distributorships changing hands.&#8221;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;I \u2063would say Martin Luther King was the\u2062 moral voice \u200band Jesse and the people he brought \u200dwere the anger,&#8221; said former \u2063Anti-Defamation League national \u200bdirector Abraham Foxman.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Jackson founded\u200b Operation PUSH in 1971\u200d after a falling \u2062out with black activist Ralph Abernathy,\u200b King\u2019s anointed successor at the\u2064 Southern Christian Leadership Conference. (Jackson once referred to \u200cAbernathy, his former partner, as a &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/web.archive.org\/web\/20101022210347\/http:\/\/www.time.com\/time\/magazine\/article\/0,9171,879017,00.html\">ni\u2014<\/a>&#8220;.)<\/p>\n<p>Black Panther \u2064leader \u200cFred Hampton first\u200d coined the term &#8220;rainbow coalition&#8221; in 1969, although Jackson later stole it a few \u200dyears later \u2062for his own activist army dedicated &#8220;to a \u200cgreater share of economic and \u2062political power for all \u2062poor people in America in the spirit of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.&#8221; But after just four years, Operation PUSH was sputtering\u2014and $400,000 in debt.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson sensed a solution to his financial woes in \u200cthe wake of the Watergate scandal with Jimmy Carter\u2019s 1976 presidential campaign.\u200b He began an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-jesse-jackson-remade-the-democratic-party\/\" title=\"Jesse Jackson's Democratic Party Transformation\">aggressive voter black voter registration campaign<\/a> and their relationship that year \u200bwas compared by columnist Mary \u2063McGrory\u200c to that\u200b of the\u2062 prophet\u200c Nathan and King David.<\/p>\n<p>Carter\u2019s subsequent\u200d victory earned Jackson two prizes: conventional political respectability and four years of \u2062lucrative\u200c government contracts for a\u200c variety of education and urban renewal\u2063 projects.<\/p>\n<p>At the end of\u200b Carter&#8217;s first and only term, Jackson and his affiliate \u200cgroups had won $25 million in today\u2019s dollars of taxpayer money. The Carter White House took particular interest in Jackson\u2019s PUSH-Excel program, \u200bwhich aimed to raise black literacy rates in inner-city schools.<\/p>\n<p>Federal auditors\u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/files.eric.ed.gov\/fulltext\/ED240225.pdf\">later concluded<\/a> that the initiative &#8220;had\u2064 little impact on\u2064 the atmosphere \u2063or opportunity dimensions&#8221; and \u200dthat there was &#8220;no pattern of change positive or \u2064negative with behavior,\u200b homework, or drop out levels.&#8221; In a \u200bmajority of schools where students were exposed to the problem, grades actually went down. The only tangible results of the program appeared to \u200bbe the certificate\u200d and\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/leading-candidate-for-new-york-city-mayor-may-not-live-in-city-report-suggests\/\" title=\"Leading Candidate For New York City Mayor May Not Live In City, Report Suggests\">voter registration form<\/a> students received when they <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/shrier-why-girls-become-boys\/\" title=\"Shrier: Why Girls Become Boys\">graduated high school<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite those conclusions,\u2064 <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/policy\/welfare-tax-rules-keep-working-class-americans-from-marrying-experts-say\/\">which<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/the-weird-ideas-and-shoddy-science-behind-free-government-crack-pipes\/\">mirror<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/national-security\/are-minneapoliss-police-protests-causing-a-crime-wave\/\">so<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/biden-administration\/biden-admin-says-its-covid-spending-for-schools-will-boost-test-scores-districts-used-the-funds-for-staff-bonuses\/\">many<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/freebeacon.com\/issues\/report-basic-income-disincentivizes-work\/\">others<\/a>, Jackson pioneered a \u200cnew model for left-wing organizations. With a convincing message, an \u200dactivist like\u200d Jackson could access a stream of money from Democratic politicians, lawmakers, and donors. That remains true to\u200b this day: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Marcia Fudge proclaimed her agency would &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hud.gov\/press\/press_releases_media_advisories\/HUD_No_23_143\">carry the baton<\/a>&#8221; of \u2062Rainbow PUSH in the years to come.<\/p>\n<p>By 1979, Jackson\u2019s associates were \u200dlaunching their own &#8220;diversity consulting&#8221;\u200c firms, precursors to\u2063 today\u2019s diversity, equity, and inclusion consultants, which coordinated closely with Operation \u2062PUSH. Jackson, meanwhile, set his sights on the White House, and began working to burnish his foreign\u200c policy credentials and left one\u200c of his\u2064 most pernicious marks on the Democratic Party.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson \u2062sensed that anti-Semitism in the black\u2063 community\u200d could \u2062be a political weapon when married with\u2062 existing left-wing critiques of American foreign policy. He argued that there was\u2062 no functional difference between Arab demands and those of black \u200cSouth \u2062Africans, and \u2064claimed both groups had common cause with allegedly \u2063oppressed\u200d minorities \u2064in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>Yasser Arafat and other Arab leaders who wanted to win sympathy \u200bin the West\u2062 embraced Jackson as an \u200cally. The Arab League\u200d wound \u2062up\u200c donating hundreds of thousands of \u200bdollars to the PUSH \u200cFoundation. Receipts from the Arab League comprised 80 percent of the PUSH \u200dFoundation\u2019s fundraising \u2064in \u20631981.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;This played out on the international scene because Palestinians tried to\u200b project themselves\u2063 as\u200b people of color, whereas the Israelis and Jews were \u2063white,&#8221; said Foxman. &#8220;It worked\u200b in \u2063the Third \u2062World. And it spilled over here.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>But according to the Marxist political scientist Adolph Reed, Jackson\u2019s &#8220;simple-minded anti-Semitic discourse&#8221; gave way\u200d to &#8220;a meanness of spirit \u200band small-mindedness.&#8221; \u200cThat spirit was on\u200b display when Jackson\u200d returned \u200bhome \u2063from a controversial 1979 trip to Lebanon. Facing criticism for the\u200d trip, during which he kissed Arafat on the cheek, Jackson complained\u2063 about the &#8220;the \u200dpersecution complex\u2063 of many \u200cJewish people&#8221; and falsely claimed that all of his critics were Jewish. There was a conspiracy, Jackson maintained, centered on how \u200cthe Jews &#8220;do \u200dnot share with us \u2063control of wealth, \u200dbroadcasting stations and other centers of power.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Comments like those dogged Jackson\u2019s 1984 presidential campaign. Jackson\u2019s anti-Semitism was \u2064revealed again the same year when a <em>Washington Post<\/em> reporter overheard \u200chim\u2062 refer to Jews by the slur as &#8220;Hymies&#8221; and New York City as &#8220;Hymie \u200bTown.&#8221; Jackson later apologized at a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1984\/02\/27\/us\/jackson-admits-saying-hymie-and-apologizes-at-a-synagogue.html\">New Hampshire synagogue<\/a>, where attendees left questioning his sincerity. He won just over 18 percent of the vote \u200cin that cycle&#8217;s Democratic presidential primary.<\/p>\n<p>That impressive showing allowed Jackson to secure a major concession from the Democratic Party: a formal endorsement of affirmative\u2062 action, a \u200cpolicy \u2062which is \u2064now in many ways a bedrock. He \u2062also motioned to have Palestinian statehood adopted as an official position of the party. It \u200bfailed \u2063at the time, but the party would adopt \u200dit in\u200d 2004.<\/p>\n<p>A dazzled media, whose liberal\u2064 reporters, Reed wrote, &#8220;anointed Jackson\u2019s \u2063attempt to\u2064 gain paramountcy as a \u200dblack spokesperson,&#8221; followed Jackson\u200d into his 1988 presidential run, which was far more successful. Despite his explicit partnership with black nationalist and anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan\u2063 and endorsements from then-fringe groups \u200bsuch\u2063 as \u2062the Democratic Socialist of America, his share of the white vote <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/1988\/06\/13\/us\/jackson-share-of-votes-by-whites-triples-in-88.html\">tripled<\/a>, in large part because of gains among\u200c those with a college degree \u2062or higher.<\/p>\n<p>Jackson ultimately won\u200d nearly 30 percent of the \u2064primary vote. He received more than twice the support of\u2063 future \u200dvice president Al Gore, \u2063and placed second behind Massachusetts governor\u2064 Michael Dukakis.\u200d His improvement among white voters \u2062could be best seen in states such as his surprise victories in the Michigan primary and the Vermont caucus, where Burlington\u2019s socialist mayor Bernie Sanders was among one of Jackson\u2019s most fanatical\u2062 supporters.<\/p>\n<p>The Democratic Party rewarded \u2064Jackson with a primetime speaking\u200d slot\u2062 at\u2062 its convention in Atlanta,\u200b where he received a standing \u200covation from the\u2063 audience,\u200c and an &#8220;at-large&#8221; membership for his son, Jesse Jackson Jr. That 1988 speech, with its references to scripture intertwined \u200bwith plaudits for civil rights icons such\u2062 as Rosa Parks, is considered\u2062 one of Jackson\u2019s best.<\/p>\n<p>It was also\u2064 a declaration of the Democratic Party\u2019s future. Rather than promote the\u2064 traditional American ideal of a melting pot, Jackson proclaimed\u2064 that Democrats must &#8220;build &#8230; a quilt&#8221; of black, \u2063Hispanic, Asian, and gay voters, each of\u200d whom would advocate\u200b for their particular group&#8217;s interests. He also\u2063 called on the party to &#8220;fight economic violence&#8221; and\u200b pass universal voting registration, as well as make Washington, D.C., a\u2062 state.<\/p>\n<p>A new Democratic Party, Jackson \u2063declared, must cultivate\u200d &#8220;doctors who are more concerned about public health than private wealth&#8221; and\u200d &#8220;lawyers [who are] more concerned\u200d about justice than a judgeship.&#8221; \u2064Politics, \u2062Jackson said, must \u2063transform into a &#8220;moral arena.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>American politics inhabits that moral arena \u200ctoday, Brazile told \u200cthe <em>Free Beacon<\/em>. Differences over\u2062 health care, immigration, or taxes are no longer a matter of opinion, but what Joe Biden would \u2064later describe as \u200dfights over &#8220;the \u200csoul of the nation.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The\u2064 moral arena, \u200bas Jackson made clear, extended internationally\u2062 as well. A new\u2063 generation\u2062 of Democrats &#8220;must offer leadership to the real world,&#8221; which was mostly limited \u2062to\u2063 support for left-wing governments in South America and Africa, as well as the PLO. \u200bIt was\u2064 up\u200d to the next Democratic president, Jackson said in 2008, \u2063to eliminate\u2063 the &#8220;Zionists\u200c who\u2062 have controlled American \u2062policy for decades.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Just \u2062two\u200b days before Omar and 10 of her \u2064Democratic colleagues boycotted Israeli\u2062 president Isaac Herzog\u2019s speech to Congress, she spoke at a Rainbow PUSH conference. Omar called Jackson\u2064 &#8220;a man who showed that you can build a national \u2064political movement based on progressive \u2064ideas and a \u2062vision of radical love.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>That \u200cmovement\u2019s &#8220;radical love&#8221; would seem to exclude those\u200c whom Democrats have labeled as &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/blogs\/ben-smith\/2008\/04\/obama-on-small-town-pa-clinging-to-religion-guns-xenophobia-007737\">bitter<\/a>,&#8221; \u2062and &#8220;deplorable.&#8221; But it was an undoubtedly successful movement,\u200c one that delivered \u2062two terms \u2064for Obama, provided &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/blogs\/blog-briefing-room\/news\/4100469-biden-praises-retiring-jesse-jackson-as-a-man-of-god-and-of-the-people\/\">wisdom<\/a>&#8221; for Biden, and now fuels \u2064the progressive &#8220;Squad&#8221; as it \u200bdrives the Democratic Party ever leftward.<\/p>\n<p>To Jackson\u2019s\u2063 supporters, those electoral \u2063victories are all that\u200d matters. But whether\u200d today\u2019s members of the &#8220;rainbow coalition&#8221; benefit more than the Chicago public school students who \u200dare left with nothing \u2062but a certificate\u2064 and a \u200dvoter registration form is an unanswered question.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>&#8220;Jackson\u2019s not being given credit for seeing\u2064 the Rainbow Coalition as a power vehicle in political \u200bgames,&#8221; said Foxman. &#8220;And he did it all without 100 consulting firms.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On July 16, VP Kamala Harris spoke at the PUSH Coalition Convention, honoring Jesse Jackson, the organization&#8217;s founder. Held at the Apostolic Church of God in Chicago, she praised his leadership as he stepped down after over five decades of service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":197,"featured_media":1991701,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[544],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1991700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-free-beacon"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1991700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/197"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1991700"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1991700\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1991701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1991700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1991700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1991700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}