Jesse Jackson’s success gives Democratic Party heads fits

Press, 15 January 1988, Page 16

Jesse Jackson’s success gives Democratic Party heads fits

lan Brodie?

of the ‘Daily Telegraph,’ reports from New York

Jesse. The first name alone is sufficient for almost all American voters to identify the Rev. Jesse Jackson, the black Democrat running for President. For good or ill, he enjoys phenomenal name recognition. Mr Jackson is a maverick, as volatile as a lorry-load of nitroglycerine. His increasingly successful campaign was giving the party leaders fits even before they had Mr Gary Hart’s re-entry to worry about as well. Mr Jackson’s challenge will still need to be met whether Mr Hart’s resurgence of popularity flames out or not.

His tall frame sleekly tailored, Mr Jackson excites political meetings with the cadences of an evangelist tent-show. “I am,” he shouts. “I am,” the crowd shouts back. “I am,” Mr Jackson yells, “somebody." His audience joyously repeats the paean of selfesteem. “My mind is a pearl,” says Mr Jackson, his voice rising again, and once more the fervent echoes come ringing back. America has not seen such raw emotion in the political arena since Bobby Kennedy 20 years ago. The Jackson dilemma was put succinctly by a Democratic chairman in the South where the pivotal battles will be waged. “We can’t win with Jesse and we can’t win without him,” he said. Mr Jackson attracts large num-

bers of blacks, Hispanics and, as I discovered on his latest campaign swing through Texas, a growing core of disenchanted poor whites. But he repels white conservatives, the Deomcrats’ traditional support in the South. Their dislike of Mr Jackson is racist in part, but it also reflects distrust of his Left-wing agenda. The Southern regional primary on March 8, known as Super Tuesday, was designed by the conservatives to choose an acceptable white. To their dismay, Mr Jackson is turning Super Tuesday to his advantage. For months he led the polls, outranked only by “Don’t .Knows.” until Mr Hart’s return.

By July, when Democrats convene in Atlanta to choose their White House nominee, Mr Jackson expects between 600 to 1000 delegate votes out of 4160. With so much clout, the crucial question becomes: What does Mr Jackson want? “I want to be President,” he told me. And failing that? “I want my party to win.” Shrewdly, he does not yet name his price for co-operating with a white candidate. Vice-President? A Cabinet

post? A promise that private pension funds will be nationalised “to rebuild America?” As conditions, they would guarantee a stampede of anti-Jackson Democrats to the Republicans. Born 46 years ago to a 17-year-old high-school student who became pregnant by the married man who lived next door in Greenville, South Carolina, Jesse Louis Jackson has made much of his illegitimacy. His mother soon married a postal worker, Charles Jackson, who adopted the infant. Mr Jackson did not grow up in the poverty he later claimed but he did feel the sting of racism. Blacks had separate schools, stores and had to sit at the back of the bus. Talented and ambitious, Mr Jackson developed an excellence for preaching and an anguish over racial prejudice that propelled him into the inner circle of Dr Martin Luther King. Eventually, the civil rights leader clashed with his pushy young lieutenant.

Aides remember King rounding on Mr Jackson, who had been questioning tactics for a protest march, and castigating

him prophetically: “Jesse, it may be that you’ll carve your own niche in society. But don’t you bother me.” Mr Jackson was crushed, but stayed. Five days later, on April 4 1968, King was assassinated. What happened in the ensuing panic has led other followers of King to brand Mr Jackson a liar. Mr Jackson quickly claimed he was the last person to whom King spoke and that he cradled the dying leader in his arms on that balcony in Memphis. Others do not remember Mr Jackson being that close and cannot ex-

plain how his sweater became » smeared with King’s blood. They accuse Mr Jackson of i unseemly haste in seeking to assume King’s mantle. They scoff s that while King had a dream, Mr i Jackson had a scheme. >

When I asked Mr. Jackson 1 about the disparities, he reached 1 for a Biblical parallel: “After i Jesus was crucified, each book of the Gospels had a different ver- I sion. Every man remembers ■’ what he experienced. I don’t 3 challenge their account/’ i

Other controversies swirl around Mr Jackson. Jews still resent his use of an anti-Semitic ■ slur and his embrace of Mr Yassir Arafat. Questions are asked about mis-speht government grants for Mr Jackson’s job-training programme,' P.U.S.H. (People United to Serve' Humanity-) There have been reports of alleged affairs. They are dismissed ambiguously by his forceful wife Jacqueline, mother of > his three sons and two daughters f aged 12 to 24. ; But the most sinister threat to ■- Mr Jackson is the potential assa- r sin for, appallingly, he is the target of constant death threats. • In the last year, a dozen people i have been arrested for threaten- ( ing him harm and his Secret; Service bodyguards are never far away. Wherever he goes Mr • Jackson is displaying courage.