Jesse Jackson Made Today’s Democratic Party Possible |
As a longtime Democratic National Convention staffer, I have two ineradicable memories of the Reverend Jesse Jackson, who died yesterday at the age of 84. The first was a famous moment at the 1988 convention, when, after a hard-fought primary season, he endorsed nominee Michael Dukakis in what everyone instantly recognized as the best speech of the entire campaign cycle.
The second was a quiet, behind-the-scenes moment at the 2000 convention, when Jackson entered a rehearsal room where I was working. The last thing he needed was a rehearsal, and it turned out he showed up only so his wife, Jacqueline, could stand behind the rehearsal podium and get a sense of what it was like to address a national convention.
Whether in a huge arena or a small room, Jackson commanded attention wherever he went and represented a challenge to anyone complacent about the Democratic Party or America itself. Now that he’s gone, it’s appropriate to assess his political legacy. As a former policy director of the centrist Democratic Leadership Council — a group Jackson often criticized and once excoriated as “Democrats for the leisure class” — I feel particularly compelled to express appreciation for his accomplishments, which were sometimes easy to underappreciate in the heat of intraparty conflict. Without question, he was the best orator of his generation. But he aimed, and succeeded, at so much more than words.
First and most obvious, Jackson proved a Black politician could run a viable presidential........