Jesse Jackson (one of the first named carved on the John O'Neill Wall of Heroes) was the last leader standing, except for the Congressional Black Caucus itself, after the Fraudida 2000 debacle ended in Supreme InJustice. Of course, shortly afterwards, the "vast reich-wing" conspiracy tried to destroy him. They did not succeed. He fights on, and now Al Gore, having learned the painful lesson that in struggle against such the Bush cabal, gentle men cannot afford to be too "gentlemanly," has also taken to the highway, speaking TRUTH to Power. If treachery and treason await us again in the aftermath of November 2004, Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mekong) will not make the mistake Al Gore made in 2000, he will not tell Jesse to get off the street or tell the CBC to sit down.
Jesse Jackson: In 2000, they robbed the bank, and wrecked the truck in the getaway. Now, they've compounded the damage with shame, secrecy and scandal. We must win on our strength, not on their weaknesses...In his four years in office, Bush has never met with civil rights leadership. Never met with the NAACP, who has met with every president since Warren Harding. He has never met with John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO. He has never met with NOW or NARAL. He has closed the door to the Oval Office along ideological lines, locking out those who disagree with his politics...Bush abused his authority. He chose Chalabi over Hans Blix, Kofi Annan, the UN, Germany, France and Russia. He chose Wolfowitz and Perle over Colin Powell and his misgivings. Bush loosed Rumsfeld to berate our European allies with his "our way or the highway" arrogance. The burden is on this administration. The United States found no evidence of imminent threat, Al Qaeda connections or WMDs. We have lost over 800 American lives and many times more Iraqi lives, spent billions, and now lost our national honor. The United States is in disgrace and isolation in Iraq...There needs to be a clear gap between Sen. Kerry and the Bush position—and the bigger the gap on the war, the bigger the margin of victory in November...The formula is straightforward:
Register new African American and Latino voters;
Strengthen alliances with labor, and with workers who would be in unions if the rules were fair;
Talk directly to working men and women about common ground economic interests—jobs, living wages, health care and economic security;
Reach out specifically to single women, who always get the short end of the economic stick;
Use social issues to win over suburban women;
Take young people seriously; every graduating senior should have a voting card along with their diploma; colleges need to have voting precincts on campus;
Spend money on organizers, not just TV ads; and,
Increase voter turnout.
And one more thing: count every vote—make every vote count. We can hope for a landslide—we need one, to take back the Senate and House—but we should work every day as if every state, every neighborhood, were Florida.
Remember Florida. Every vote counts
Remember Florida. Minority votes are discounted.
Remember Florida. The right takes what they can, not what they won.
Remember Florida. Every vote counts. Count every vote.
If we remember these rules, and work on them every single day for the next 150 days, we will win.
Restore the Timeline, Show Up for Democracy in 2004: Defeat Bush (again!)
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/jesse_jacksons_formula.php
Jesse Jackson's Formula
Rev. Jesse Jackson
June 11, 2004
Rev. Jackson is a pioneer in uniting people across divisions of race and class. This summer he's on a Reinvest in America tour to spread his vision. In this speech to grassroots activists, Jackson lays out the agenda for bringing voters of every class, race and place over to the Democratic Party in November. Yes, says Jackson, progressives want John Kerry to win. But they also want the Democratic vision of a "One Big Tent" America to win.
Editor's Note: This speech was delivered at the Take Back America Conference on Friday, June 4, 2004.
Beware the rich young ruler who becomes an evangelist. He is now conducting pre-emptive wars for God.
In 2000, they robbed the bank, and wrecked the truck in the getaway. Now, they've compounded the damage with shame, secrecy and scandal. We must win on our strength, not on their weaknesses.
George W. Bush campaigned as a "compassionate conservative, implying that he was less dismissive of the labor and civil rights community than Ronald Reagan was, and more open than his father. However, he has been a "closed-door conservative." Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing.
In his four years in office, Bush has never met with civil rights leadership. Never met with the NAACP, who has met with every president since Warren Harding. He has never met with John Sweeney and the AFL-CIO. He has never met with NOW or NARAL. He has closed the door to the Oval Office along ideological lines, locking out those who disagree with his politics.
Our votes can open the White House up again. We deserve access to our White House and the Department of Justice!
As progressives—civil rights, labor, environmental, peace and gender equity activists—we want John Kerry to win. But we also want the time-honored legacy of the Democratic vision of a one-big-tent America to win. We are clear that inclusion and expansion lead to growth, lifting the boats mired at the bottom. It is morally right and value-added for our society.
We want a new president, and a new direction, and new priorities. You really cannot have one without the others. We want them all! We want a no-carb plan: no Cheney, no Ashcroft, no Rumsfeld, no Bush, and very little Rice.
Let's look at the first issue to address: reaching across the racial divide, to register and mobilize the huge number of pro-democratic, pro-labor unregistered people of color. We will win or lose by the margin of their involvement and inspiration, or their despair.
We can afford for them to miss conferences, but we cannot afford for them to miss Election Day. Often conservatives oppress them and push them out; and too often top democrats do distancing dances. Both parties assume the fight is for the present voting pool. But the 30/40/30 equation is faulty. It assumes a static 30 percent of voters are on the left, 30 percent on the right: 40 percent in the middle. This static theory misses the fact that there are so many unregistered voters who can change the balance if they are brought into the picture.
We need to expand the pool, to expand the role of the poor. Many top democrats have mixed emotions or write them off. They want the votes of this great group, but ignore their issues. But we need to get them in, and grow our base vote. We must address the issues of their lives. We need to reach them on the ground. They cannot be reached by an air war of TV ads.
In reality, their issues are America's issues – and they are key to a coalition for victory. For example, in South Carolina, trade policies, union policies, education policies and criminal justice policies come together. The population of South Carolina is 35 percent black, but the prison population is 80 percent black. 110,000 blacks are arrested there every year. That means 110,000 calls to lawyers, calls to bail bondsmen, court appearances. There are 32 state prisons in the state, but only one state college. There is an entire jail industry being supported by African Americans. Of more than 140 judges, only nine are people of color.
There has been a net loss of 75,000 jobs in each southern state. There are more young black men in jail than in college in every state.
If the voters in South Carolina and neighboring states are enfranchised and empowered, and vote their interests, their numbers will be key to victory for Democrats and for labor.
Here is a summary of data on unregistered blacks in several states:
New York: 800,000 +
New Jersey: 400,000 +
Maryland: 400,000 +
Alabama : 300,000 +
Florida: 600,000 +
Georgia: 600,000 +
North Carolina: 500,000 +
South Carolina: 300,000 +
In addition, there are almost 6 million unregistered Latino citizens nationally.
Labor unions were born when slavery ended. Labor can be born again when racial oppression and worker marginalization end in the south.
In 1986, based on vigorous Rainbow-led voter registration and Southern black motivation, we regained the Senate even at the height of Reagan's popularity. This success was not widely attributed to the 1984 campaign, and the motivation of over two million new base voters who were pro-labor, pro-Democrat and anti-states'-rights.
They also helped elect Clinton in 1992 and 1996. Bush and Dole received more white votes than Clinton, but Clinton received more Rainbow votes.
They were the key to Gore winning the most votes in 2000. And his election was stolen by the margin of discounted, uncounted and disenfranchised black voters—for example, voter scrubbing by Ms. Harris in Florida.
Progressives often have right ideas, but their fuel to drive the engine must be connected to the base power. I hope that the cultural disconnect between progressive whites and blacks and Latinos will not leave us limping at less than full strength.
Secondly, the war in Iraq—a war of choice, not of necessity; a vain journey rooted in deception and greed. The ultimate shame is not that Kerry and those who voted for war out of misinformation and fear of consequences after 9/11. Colin Powell said we went to war on flawed information. Rumsfeld called it a miscalculation. Bush said "bring them on."
Bush abused his authority. He chose Chalabi over Hans Blix, Kofi Annan, the UN, Germany, France and Russia. He chose Wolfowitz and Perle over Colin Powell and his misgivings. Bush loosed Rumsfeld to berate our European allies with his "our way or the highway" arrogance. The burden is on this administration. The United States found no evidence of imminent threat, Al Qaeda connections or WMDs. We have lost over 800 American lives and many times more Iraqi lives, spent billions, and now lost our national honor. The United States is in disgrace and isolation in Iraq.
We have gone from pre-emptive strike—ignoring international law— to invasion, occupation, and now we seek to conquer, and put a CIA-selected steering committee—a handpicked veneer of democracy—over the Iraqi people.
America must be given a choice—away from this vain and failed war policy and a weakened America. To go further down this road is to be blinded by a foolish pride that precedes the fall. The United States went in along with private security guards and a few Brits—but we need the international community to come to our rescue.
There needs to be a clear gap between Sen. Kerry and the Bush position—and the bigger the gap on the war, the bigger the margin of victory in November.
One reason to end this war based on lies is that it is blue-collar boys and girls that are doing the dying. No child of a member of Congress is serving in Iraq. Another reason is the one that Dr. King raised during Vietnam—we can't afford both guns and butter. An expensive war of empire will drain our programs of social uplift.
This war has already cost more than the combined costs of the revolutionary war, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, the Spanish American War, and the Persian Gulf War combined—and now it has exceeded the cost of World War One. And they just admitted that they will be slashing social programs next year. The war is ruining our economy.
Despite all the fear of terror attacks, the Bush administration is allowing the ban on assault weapons to expire in September. 7,500 AK-47 guns were recently intercepted in Vermont. If 9/11 was a tragedy, imagine those weapons falling into the hands of terrorists. We must extend the ban of assault weapons.
Thirdly: Economic issues and war priorities are inextricably bound together. We need to find economic common ground in the battlegrounds, so we can reach higher ground.
Bush is wiping out the resources for reinvesting in America. We have already heard about the Halliburton no-bid contracts and overcharging for fuel in Iraq. Now we know that Arthur Andersen, the infamous accounting and consulting firm, has a $10 billion contract for border surveillance and identification, under the name Accenture, based in Bermuda. The combination of tax gifts and off-shore tax avoidance schemes for wealthy Americans, $200 billion for Iraq destruction and reconstruction with no-bid contracts and the subsequent record deficit is putting our future in jeopardy.
Our infrastructure needs rebuilding. Our schools need rebuilding. Health care needs to be expanded. We have our priorities.
In economics, there is a school of thought that favors tax cuts and trickle down. There is another school that says invest in infrastructure, attract private capital and develop up.
It is not reasonable in a tightly bound world community to globalize capital without globalizing human rights, workers' rights, women's rights, children's rights and environmental rights. To export jobs and capital and import cheap products and guest workers leads toward a day of reckoning on the economic scale. As the gap expands between north and south, the richest and the poorest, the walls being erected cannot be defended by cannons and missiles. We must build bridges.
Our present policies stimulate reactions of terror and pain. We must have a broader view of our mission. We can lead the world by our values—freedom of speech, checks and balances, equal justice and fairness, transparency. We cannot dominate the world with our guns.
Finally: Back to basics. Reinvest in America : Put America back to work.
Next week—June 6 to 9—we go to Appalachia. Mine workers, chemical workers, steel workers, AFSCME, AFGE and electrical workers are going to the hills.
Starting in Pittsburgh, to western Pennsylvania, West Virginia, southern Kentucky, eastern Ohio—we will again raise the issues of the working poor. Coal miners die of "black lung." Children riding two and a half hours each way to school—and no one is discussing vouchers or charter schools for these children! Plants closing and jobs leaving.
Why Appalachia? It is a region of abounding poverty and patriotic working poor people. We want to take away the race card from the right wing. To whiten the face of poverty. To deracialize the debate about rebuilding America.
When John Kennedy campaigned in Harlem, he held up a black baby—but he was dismissed. But Bobby Kennedy, holding up a white baby in Appalachia, poor, hungry, bloated stomach—that whitened the face of poverty. That little white baby drove the public agenda. Most poor people are not black or brown—they're white, female, and young—two-thirds are children. The nation had to face the white face of poverty.
We will challenge whites to choose economic common ground over racial fear and cultural wedges. We will challenge blacks to choose hope over despair.
We must break the policies and dwarf visions that will not work.
We need to protect our vote. Congressman Jackson is right: we need a constitutional right to vote for the president, so states-rights forces will not remain in power to steal federal elections. We need the constitutionally protections, not states-rights schemes. Bush wants to manipulate and divide, and amend the Constitution to break gay rights.
We need to amend the Constitution to guarantee rights for everyone.
We need to guarantee equal, high-quality public education for all; and the right of workers to organize.
We need to guarantee equal, high-quality public health care for all, and a secure, healthy environment.
We need a new president! We need a new direction!
We need a new Supreme Court with moral authority.
We need a long-term view of national interest, not limited by short-term politics. We need workers to have their rightful place at the table in trade negotiations. We need civil rights protected for all—not privileges for an exalted few.
All of this and more is within our reach—unlike past years when
There was no Internet
Women did not have the right to vote
Workers did not have the right to organize at all
Races did not have the right to associate
People of color did not have the right to vote, and
Rural blacks were intimidated and whites hampered by poll taxes.
Today we have the power to change our objective conditions.
The right wing is not that popular. It is sustained by money, and by our side's failure to exercise our full political power, by our failure to register and vote our whole team. Hundreds of thousands of African Americans in every state in the South—not registered or not voting.
More than five million unregistered citizen Latinos in the United States today. We should be growing our base.
We win with African Americans. We win with Latinos. We win with single women. We win with new voters, especially the young.
Whites need to vote their economic interests over racial fears. Blacks and Latinos need to vote hope over despair.
As we pursue the presidency, we need common ground economic messages for the Midwest.
As we seek to win back the Senate, and even the House, we have to try a new southern strategy. We have to enter boldly the southern red zone, where the going is toughest.
If we want to win the future, we have to forge a black and brown and labor coalition to register and mobilize millions of new Latinos.
The formula is straightforward:
Register new African American and Latino voters;
Strengthen alliances with labor, and with workers who would be in unions if the rules were fair;
Talk directly to working men and women about common ground economic interests—jobs, living wages, health care and economic security;
Reach out specifically to single women, who always get the short end of the economic stick;
Use social issues to win over suburban women;
Take young people seriously; every graduating senior should have a voting card along with their diploma; colleges need to have voting precincts on campus;
Spend money on organizers, not just TV ads; and,
Increase voter turnout.
And one more thing: count every vote—make every vote count. We can hope for a landslide—we need one, to take back the Senate and House—but we should work every day as if every state, every neighborhood, were Florida.
Remember Florida. Every vote counts
Remember Florida. Minority votes are discounted.
Remember Florida. The right takes what they can, not what they won.
Remember Florida. Every vote counts. Count every vote.
If we remember these rules, and work on them every single day for the next 150 days, we will win.
Our destiny is in our hands! We have the power to vote for a new direction.
Together, on common ground, we win. Together, keeping hope alive, we win. Together, mobilizing for November second, and then re-mobilizing for November third, we will win—we will deserve to win—and we will change the direction of our nation.
"If my people, who are called by my name…"
Keep hope alive! And thank you.