Jo's Cafe

Jesse Jackson: Dems Plagued by ‘Weak, Fuzzy Ideology’
By Marc Morano
CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer
August 01, 2005

Washington (CNSNews.com) – Following on the heels of Al Sharpton’s criticism of the Democratic Party, Jesse Jackson Friday turned up the rhetorical heat, blaming the party for its “weak, fuzzy ideology.”

Jackson faulted the Democrats for supporting the NAFTA and CAFTA international trade deals as well as the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994, which contained a provision imposing life sentences for people convicted of three violent crimes.

Why is Jesse Jackson against violent criminals being put in prison for life after three convictions? Why wouldn’t he want these violent criminals off the street?

Jackson warned black voters to avoid becoming pawns “in the struggle [over] our dignity and our identity.

Mr. Jackson calls for black voters to avoid being pawns, yet the DNC is the one that uses them the most as pawns during elections. The statement is a valid one. No one group of people should be used as pawns in any election, black, white, etc. Yet the black communities are used regularly by the DNC during elections.

“We must have a commitment to a political order that makes sense for our constituency,” he added, echoing the comments made by Sharpton a day earlier.

Yes Mr. Jackson, I do agree. Your statement holds much truth to it, yet I fear you are directing them at the wrong party, again.

Jackson reserved harsh criticism for the Democratic Leadership Council (DLC), the more centrist wing of the Democratic Party previously dominated by former President Bill Clinton.

The DLC’s decision to meet at the same time organized labor was holding its national convention was no accident, Jackson said. “No labor leader was [at the DLC meeting]. No civil rights leader was there. They embrace CAFTA (Central American Free Trade Agreement) and now sell admission to its conferences to [corporations],” Jackson said.

Jackson also announced his opposition to the Bush administration’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge John Roberts.

“Judge Roberts has a velvet claw, but inside there is a hard steel fist,” Jackson said. “He opposed affirmative action and the rights of workers. He went to Florida (during the 2000 presidential election recount) at his own expense to chart the course and anoint Mr. Bush as president. He has paid the price to be exalted by this administration.”

Jackson warned that “the more the right wing rejoices, we have every reason to feel the gains of the last 50 years are in jeopardy,” repeating a theme mentioned by New York Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton, who Thursday accused Republicans of trying to erase a century of progress on civil rights.

The only gains that are in jeopardy, Mr. Jackson are those you continue to try and stop yourself with your constant attacks on an administration that has more black people in leadership positions than your favorite son Bill Clinton did. Yet you never seem to want to acknowledge that do you? You continue to tell the black community they are being down trodden at every chance you get. You never acknowledge the advancements that have been made for the minorities in this country. What a farce you are. You don’t have any legal job, have never worked a hard days night in your life, yet you try and tell the black community how to live and work. Oh, and let’s not bring up the fact that you had a child out of wedlock – one that would have sent most actual reverends out of their respective pulpits. But then again, what pulpit do YOU stand in? Only the one of your own making.

The construction of new American jails is the result of economic and social pressure, Jackson asserted. “There is a trend across the country today to use jails as tools for economic development and political control.

“In South Carolina, for example, over the last six years they arrested over 110,000 blacks per year — that’s 110,000 calls to lawyers, bailiffs, court appearances,” he explained.

And your point is what? That 110,000 blacks committed crimes and were arrested? Don’t you want people who commit crimes to be arrested? And why do you mention South Carolina? Because it’s a state where former slave owners lived. You won’t mention other states in the north that have large numbers of blacks being arrested for crimes would you?

“In Louisiana, $10 million a year is collected from collect calls from prison. All [of] that is going to the general revenue budget,” he added, noting that the biggest industry” in many states is the department of correction.

Every jail system in the United States requires that those incarcerated make calls collect. It’s not just in Louisiana and it’s not just the black population that has to make these calls to whomever – it’s ALL of them.

The high incarceration rate of American blacks reveals a need for more democracy in the U.S., Jackson said. “As we fight for democracy in Iraq, in Iran and around the world, surely we must have democracy in South Carolina, North Carolina, Georgia and Alabama.”

The high incarceration rate of American Blacks (what happened to your hyphenated African American crap btw) reveals only that blacks are committing crimes and getting caught at it. It’s obvious that your “work” over the last few years hasn’t done one bit of good if the “high incarceration of American Blacks” hasn’t declined any. What are you doing for your community Mr. Jackson? Just running your mouth again it seems in my book.