Future
of Democratic Party lies in moving to the moral center
By Jesse
Jackson
August 13, 2018
A new generation of Democrats, such
as New York congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, is
challenging the party's establishment, writes Jesse Jackson, and the
party's goal should be to embrace the "moral center." | AP
Photo/Mary Altaffer
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The media is now
reporting on the debate among Democrats and activists about what the
party should stand for, and how it will win elections.
Establishment Democrats
are said fear that the populist reform energy represented by Bernie
Sanders and rising star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (who upset Rep. Joe
Crowley, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, in a New York City
primary) will turn off the moderate, upscale, white suburban Republicans
who they believe are appalled by Trump and the key to taking back the Congress.
A Wall-Street-funded
group known as the Third Way — which might better be known as the Wrong
Way since it has been wrong about every major issue facing the country
over the last years, championing disastrous corporate trade deals,
deregulation of Wall Street and the Iraq War among other calamities —
even convened a small gathering, “cohosted” by a billionaire real estate
developer to map out how to counter what the media describes as the left.
The very terms of this
debate are misleading. Ideas that have broad public support, such as
tuition-free college, are labeled “left.” Ideas that offend philosophical
conservatives, such as subsidies to big oil companies, are tagged as on
the right, championed by Republicans.
We’d be wiser to focus on
common sense and basic principles. When Dr. Martin Luther King spoke
forcefully against what he called the “triple evils” of “racism, economic
exploitation and militarism,” he was criticized for weakening the cause
of civil rights, for getting out of his lane by talking about economic
inequality and against the Vietnam War.
He responded, “I’m
against segregation at lunch counters, and I’m not going to segregate my
moral concerns.” Cowardice, he taught us, asks the question “Is it safe?”
Expediency asks, “Is it politic?” Vanity asks, “Is it popular?”
Conscience asks, “Is it right?”
We
are a nation faced with great perils. Inequality has reached new extremes
and, even with the economy near full employment, working people still
struggle simply to stay afloat. Big money corrupts our politics and
distorts our government. We are mired in wars without end — 17 years in
Afghanistan and counting — and without victory or sense. We have a
president who believes he profits politically by spreading racial
division, appealing to our fears rather than our hopes.
This is the time for
citizens and for true leaders to move not left or right, to the expedient
or the cautious, but to the moral center. Affordable health care for all
isn’t left or right, it is the moral center. Jobs that pay a living wage,
affordable housing, public education, college without debt, clean water
and air, action to address catastrophic climate change that literally may
endanger the world — these are not ideas of the right or left. They are
the moral center.
Holding to the moral
center has its own power. Opposition to slavery started as a minority
position, but its moral force was undeniable. Integration seemed
impossible in the segregated South, but its moral force could not be
denied. In this time of troubles, I believe that Americans in large
numbers are looking for leaders who will embrace the moral center, not
the expedient, the safe or the fashionable. They are looking for
champions who will represent them, not those with deep pockets.
That may be the final irony.
The most successful political strategy may well be not to trim to
prevailing opinion or compromise with entrenched interest but to stand up
forcefully for what is right.
As
teams gear up for the NFL season, President Trump is reviving his
destructive
and
diversionary attacks aimed at turning fans against players.
The
league office stepped in it by unilaterally declaring that players who do
not want
to
stand during the national anthem should stay in the locker room. The NFL
players
association
had little choice but to force negotiations over that insult.
Jerry
Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, is a decent guy. But he stuck his
foot
in
it, too, recently announcing that the Cowboys had to stand for the anthem
and
couldn’t
stay in the locker room – or else. The league wisely told him to zip it
while
the
policy was under negotiation. So it goes.
So
much of this is a false narrative. Fake news.
Trump
dishonestly insists that the players are disrespecting the flag. In fact,
the
players
kneeling during the anthem were expressing a silent protest not against
the
flag,
but against police brutality and the reality of structural racial
inequality.
Kneeling
before the flag in silent, nonviolent protest is not disrespectful to the
Stars
and
Stripes. Just the opposite. It is a sign of deference and respect, a call
to honor
what
the flag is truly supposed to represent.
Burning
the flag is constitutionally protected but is a desecration. Burning a
cross is
a
desecration. It is violent. Kneeling before the cross, or during the
anthem, on the
other
hand, isn’t a desecration; it is a call for help.
Colin
Kaepernick was and is concerned about blacks being beaten and killed by
police.
He kneeled during the anthem to highlight how the values of the flag were
being
ignored on the streets. He wasn’t disrespecting the flag; he was
protesting
those
who trample its values. He was being a patriot.
Now
Trump wants to light the dynamite again. His politics prey and thrive on
division.
He hopes to divide us one against the other while his administration
rolls
back
protections of consumers, workers and the environment, allows corporate
lobbyists
to rig the rules, and lards more and more tax cuts and subsidies on
entrenched
interests and the wealthy.
So,
he purposefully peddles the false narrative that the players are
disrespecting the
flag.
Jones,
who is a Trump supporter, isn’t a bad man. Beyond the playing field, beyond
contracts,
he has been a decent guy. He paid for the funeral of Cowboy great Bob
Hayes.
But Jones has allowed himself to be turned into Trump’s pawn in this
diversion.
The reality is that we would not have the Dallas Cowboys in Dallas were
it
not
for those protesting for their rights.
The
victory of the Civil Rights Movement opened the way to a New South. The
nonviolent
protests and resistance pulled down the old barriers and walls in the
South,
clearing the way for the Cowboys and the Spurs and the Rockets of the New
South,
where blacks and whites could play on the same team and wear the same
colors,
where fans root for the colors of their team, not the color of the
players’ skin.
Successful
protests – at the cost of far too many lives – finally ended slavery and
apartheid
in this society. We should be honoring the protesters, not distorting
their
message.
Kaepernick
was right to protest what is going on in our streets. He has paid a heavy
penalty
for expressing his views in a nonviolent and dignified fashion. One of
the
best
quarterbacks in the league, he has effectively been banned, a blatant
conspiracy
that
ought to constitute a clear violation of anti-trust laws.
Kaepernick
stands among giants. Curt Flood in baseball and Muhammad Ali during
the
prime years of his boxing life were also banned, but in the process, they
changed
sports
and the country for the better.
There
have always been politicians who profit by appealing to our fears. There
have
always
been politicians who seek to divide us for political gain.
We’ve
come a long way, but we still have a long way to go to fulfill the flag’s
values of
liberty
and justice for all. The players expressing their views in nonviolent and
dignified
fashion aren’t disgracing the flag, they are expressing its values.
Let
us turn against those who would divide us and join together to make
America
better.
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