Must Know The History: When Bernie Sanders Endorsed Jesse Jackson for President - TheNation

[WillyT]

Last edited Wed Feb 17, 2016, 09:22 PM - Edit history (1)

Watch: When Bernie Sanders Endorsed Jesse Jackson for President
When it mattered, Bernie stepped across the color line.
By Steve Cobble - TheNation
2/17/16


Burlington Mayor Bernard Sanders greets presidential candidate Jesse Jackson at a campaign appearance at Montpelier City Hall, Dec. 31, 1988. (AP Photo / Toby Talbot)

<snip>

I was in junior high school out in New Mexico when John Lewis showed both his moral and physical courage on the bridge at Selma. So I have no personal knowledge about his comments disparaging Bernie Sanders’s participation in the civil rights movement of the early 1960s: “I never saw him. I never met him.” I also notice that Congressman Lewis has walked back his comments, which I think is a good thing. I hate having my heroes at odds with each other.

But the incident did remind me of a later important moment in civil rights history, one I am fortunate enough to have some personal knowledge of and one that is worth relating—the time a quarter century ago that Bernie Sanders endorsed Jesse Jackson for President.

Only a few prominent, white, progressive elected officials supported Jesse when it counted. The two I remember most risked their own political career to help Jackson—Jim Hightower, then the Texas agricultural commissioner, and Bernie Sanders, then the mayor of Burlington, Vermont. Jim and Bernie took the risk and, in Jesse’s eloquent phrase, “stepped across the color line,” much to their credit. That moral courage should not be left out of the history books.

During his passionate 5-minute endorsement of Jesse, Bernie calls the Jackson campaign “the most courageous and exciting political campaign in the modern history of our nation.”

Those of you who are young may never have heard that the 1988 Jackson campaign won 13 primaries and caucuses, 7 million votes, and 1,218.5 national convention delegates. You may never have heard that the 1984 and 1988 Jackson campaigns helped register millions of young African Americans to vote—voters who were still active when it came time to vote for Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012. You may never have heard that those two Jackson campaigns forced changes in the Democratic Party rules to make them fairer and more proportional—rules changes which opened the door to Obama’s victory a generation later.

<snip>

More: http://www.thenation.com/article/watch-when-bernie-sanders-endorsed-jesse-jackson-for-president/

[2banon]

1. Kickin' & a Recken'

[tk2kewl]

2. was Jackson's platform so focused on economic justice because

it was unrelated to racism, sexism, etc?

[MuseRider]

3. I will add a kick

and a rec!

I remember this well. I had hoped he would make it. He did and does matter.

[jham123]

4. That's Bruce Rappaport

in that video...

On a serious note, here is another shining example of Bernie being true to his words dating way way way back to a time before "Clintons"

[WillyT]

5. LOL !!!

And you are correct about the shining example.

[RiverLover]

6. Kick!

Steady & true, no posturing simply for votes. He is a man for all people, no gimmicks required.

He talks about his support of Jackson here~

He's a fighter for all people, and has been his entire life.

[farleftlib]

7. And he got slapped in his face

for endorsing Jackson over Mondale. Seems like that's a common theme in Sanders life. He stands up for equality and gets no credit or appreciation - just repeated slaps in the face.

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/12/bernie-sanders-jesse-jackson-campaign

"Tonight we are here to endorse the candidate who is saying loud and clear that enough is enough, that it's time that this nation was returned to the real people of America, the vast majority of us, and that power no longer should rest solely with a handful of banks and corporations who presently dominate the economic and political life of this nation," he declared. "It is not acceptable to him, to me, or to most Americans, that 10 percent of the population of this nation is able to own 83 percent of the wealth, and the other 90 percent of us share 17 percent of the wealth."

Sanders received an icy reception at the caucus from some Democrats, who stood up and turned their back to the stage during his address. "And when I returned to my seat, a woman in the audience slapped me across the face," Sanders recalled in his 1998 book, Outsider in the House. "It was an exciting evening."

Thanks, WillyT. K&R

[Skwmom]

8. He was doing it to pander to all those black voters in Vernmont.

Last edited Wed Feb 17, 2016, 03:20 PM - Edit history (1)

[WillyT]

9. LOL !!!

[slipslidingaway]

32. Winner! nt

[Paulie]

10. This is the thing

It sounds like it was recorded a couple weeks ago. It's the same themes. With better statistics then than now.

[Chicago1980]

11. Is this supposed to impress me?

It doesn't..

[WillyT]

19. I Really Don't Care If It Impresses You...

I Care That People Get To See, And Consider The History.

Only TWO White Major Politicians "Crossed The Color Line" in 1984 & 1988.

And one of them was Bernie Sanders.

After Shirley Chisholm... this was the closest we got to an African-American President.

And it helped pave the way to a Barack Obama Presidency.

That's impressive to me.

[Chicago1980]

27. And I really don't care if you don't care.

It's not hard for people to see that history and like I said before, it really means nothing.

I guess you're easily impressed.

Pretty simple I guess.

[WillyT]

28. How Old Are You ???

[slipslidingaway]

33. Obviosuly they are young, it took courage to step outside the comforts of one's boundaries ...

during those years. It is easy to be a supporter decades later, but it was not always an easy thing to do.

[Chicago1980]

35. Older than a millennial and younger than a boomer.

[WillyT]

30. *crickets*

[Petrushka]

12. K & R

[thereismore]

13. Kicketty kick!

[iandhr]

14. And that is why Sanders won't win a general election.

Do have any idea the kind of attack ads Republicans will turn that into.

[cali]

15. Codswallop. Here's an ad: Hillary Clinton mishandled top secret information

She endangered the country she swore to protect. Hillary Clinton should be indicted, not elected.

I can imagine many more for both candidates.

[WillyT]

16. LOL !!! - 'Codswallop'... Haven't Heard That In A Long Time...

[iandhr]

17. Bernie won't have the money to fight back against their BS.

The President did and Hillary will.

[cali]

18. Yeah, yeah. And he wasn't no way no how have the money

to be serious in the primary

[LWolf]

20. But he didn't sponsor any legislation to get JJ the nomination.

So that doesn't count.

[WillyT]

21. LOL !!!

[ALBliberal]

22. He's continually "caught" doing the right thing...the foreword thinking

progressive thing. Contemporarily and historically. In so many ways he has already won. WE have already won. Can't wait to vote for him in the primary in our swing state of New Mexico!

[UglyGreed]

23. K/R

[Major Hogwash]

24. We could have won the election that year.

Gawd, that was such a tough one for us to lose.
Jesse would have been so much better if he had been the President than George H.W. Bush.

[WillyT]

25. Right There With You...

Trying to pry the power away from the careerists, since 1988.

[enigmatic]

26. I canvassed for Jesse Jackson in 1988

Last edited Wed Feb 17, 2016, 11:45 PM - Edit history (1)

His speech at the DNC that year was, outside of Mario Cuomo's "shining city on a hill" speech the best I've ever heard.

[WillyT]

29. I Met Him In 1984 In S.F.

Really great guy... supported him both times...

[WillyT]

31. G'Night !!!

[WillyT]

34. Morning Kick !!!