OLBERMANN: It is not a very high IQ total, if you were to give it to sum. Here is a question that occurs to me, this tension between these two parts of this party, is the party going to survive this? Are we going to come out at some point in the long-term future with two parties who wind up suing each over the use of names like Republican or conservative?
HUFFINGTON: Well, that will depend really on whether the so-called good part of the party, the sort of Gingrich, David Frum part of the party comes up with some good ideas. So far they haven't. One of the problems I'm having with what David Frum wrote is that he's comparing Limbaugh to the Jesse Jackson of the 1980s. I went back and re-read Jackson's speech at the '88 convention. And really it is an incredibly good speech. He issued a moral challenge to America. It was very prescient, talking about the greedy even do not benefit long from the greed. He talks about the people we need to take care of, the people who get up in the morning, take the early buses, as he put it, and go to work in hospitals and hotels, making up the beds we slept in at night.
God, have you heard anything from Rush Limbaugh that invoked empathy or compassion?
OLBERMANN: For himself, yes. To paraphrase Senator Benson, I know Jesse Jackson and Rush Limbaugh, you are no Jesse Jackson. Arianna Huffington, founder and editor of HuffingtonPost.com, as always, great thanks for your time, Arianna.
Now we turn to some of what Huffington was talking about, from Jackson's 1988 DNC speech:. There are many remarkable things about this speech. Indeed, Jackson's approval ratings skyrocketed after he gave it--most Americans had never actually heard him speak in more than a soundbite, and their impressions of him were heavily biased by the media. When they heard this speech, he immediately became one of the most approved-of politicians in America--if not the most approved of.
While Jackson was and is a strong progressive, one of the remarkable things about this speech is how much reaching out there is--just like Barack Obama. Indeed, if there's one reason I misjudged Obama at first, taking him to be more progressive than he was, it's because I was so well aware of how Jackson--as well as other black progressive--have often spoken in similar terms. But don't take my word for it. See for yourself, as Jackson makes the theme of coming together on common ground one of the hallmarks of his speech:
We meet tonight at the crossroads, a point of decision. Shall we expand, be inclusive, find unity and power; or suffer division and impotence?
We've come to Atlanta, the cradle of the old South, the crucible of the new South. Tonight, there is a sense of celebration, because we are moved, fundamentally moved from racial battlegrounds by law, to economic common ground. Tomorrow we will challenge to move to higher ground.
Common ground! Think of Jerusalem, the intersection where many trails met. A small village that became the birthplace for three religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Why was this village so blessed? Because it provided a crossroads there different people met, different cultures, different civilizations could meet and find common ground. When people come together, flowers always flourish - the air is rich with the aroma of a new spring.
Take New York, the dynamic metropolis. What makes New York so special? It's the invitation of the Statue of Liberty, "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses who yearn to breathe free." Not restricted to English only. (Applause) Many people, many cultures, many languages - with one thing in common, they yearn to breathe free. Common ground!
Tonight in Atlanta, for the first time in this century, we convene in the South; a state where Governors once stood in school house doors; where Julian Bond was denied a seal in the State Legislature because of his conscientious objection to the Vietnam War; a city that, through its five Black Universities, has graduated more black students than any city in the world. (Applause) Atlanta, now a modern intersection of the new South.
Common ground! That's the challenge of our party tonight. Left wing. Right wing.
Progress will not come through boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival - not at boundless liberalism nor static conservatism, but at the critical mass of mutual survival. It takes two wings to fly. Whether you're a hawk or a dove, you're just a bird living in the same environment, in the same world.
The Bible teaches that when lions and lambs lie down together, none will be afraid and there will be peace in the valley. It sounds impossible. Lions eat lambs. Lambs sensibly flee from lions. Yet when even lions and lambs will find common ground. Why? Because neither lions nor lambs can survive nuclear war. If lions and lambs can find common ground, surely we can as well - as civilized people. (Applause)
The only time that we win is when we come together. In 1960, John Kennedy, the late John Kennedy, beat Richard Nixon by only 112,000 votes - less than one vote per precinct. He won by the margin of our hope. He brought us together. He reached out. He had the courage to defy his advisors and inquire about Dr. King's jailing in Albany, Georgia. We won by the margin of our hope, inspired by courageous leadership.
In 1964, Lyndon Johnson brought wings together - the thesis, the antithesis, and the creative synthesis - and together we won.
In 1976, Jimmy Carter unified us again, and we won. When do we not come together, we never win.
In 1968, the vision and despair in July led to our defeat in November. In 1980, rancor in the spring and the summer led to Reagan in the fall.
When we divide, we cannot win. We must find common ground as the basis for survival and development and change, and growth. (Applause)
Pretty devisive and demagogic, wouldn't you say? It's all about driving the poor little old centrists out of the party, isn't it? Talk about a boogie man!
But Jackson is only getting started. A little later in the speech, Jackson turns "common ground" into a unifying thematic refrain-note how richly embedded in actual issues this is, in contrast to Obama's far more stripped-down promises of post-partisan change:
Common good is finding commitment to new priorities to expansion and inclusion. A commitment to expanded participation in the Democratic Party at every level. A commitment to a shared national campaign strategy and involvement at every level.
A commitment to new priorities that insure that hope will be kept alive. A common ground commitment to a legislative agenda for empowerment, for the John Conyers bill-- universal, on-site, same-day registration everywhere. (Applause) A commitment to D.C. statehood and empowerment-- D.C. deserves statehood. (Applause) A commitment to economic set-asides, commitment to the Dellums bill for comprehensive sanctions against South Africa. (Applause) A shared commitment to a common direction.
Common ground! Easier said than done. Where do you find common ground? At the point of challenge. This campaign has shown that politics need not be marketed by politicians, packaged by pollsters and pundits. Politics can be a moral arena where people come together to find common ground.
We find common ground at the plant gate that closes on workers without notice. We find common ground at the farm auction, where a good farmer loses his or her land to bad loans or diminishing markets. Common ground at the school yard where teachers cannot get adequate pay, and students cannot get a scholarship, and can't make a loan. Common ground at the hospital admitting room, where somebody tonight is dying because they cannot afford to go upstairs to a bed that's empty waiting for someone with insurance to get sick. We are a better nation than that. We must do better. (Applause)
Common ground. What is leadership if not present help in a time of crisis? So I met you at the point of challenge. In Jay, Maine, where paper workers were striking for fair wages; in Greenville, Iowa, where family farmers struggle for a fair price; in Cleveland, Ohio, where working women seek comparable worth; in McFarland, California, where the children of Hispanic farm workers may be dying from poisoned land, dying in clusters with cancer; in an AIDS hospice in Houston, Texas, where the sick support one another, too often rejected by their own parents and friends.
Common ground. America is not a blanket woven from one thread, one color, one cloth. When I was a child growing up in Greenville, South Carolina my grandmama could not afford a blanket, she didn't complain and we did not freeze. Instead she took pieces of old cloth - patches, wool, silk, gabardine, crockersack - only patches, barely good enough to wipe off your shoes with. But they didn't stay that way very long. With sturdy hands and a strong cord, she sewed them together into a quilt, a thing of beauty and power and culture. Now, Democrats, we must build such a quilt.
Farmers, you seek fair prices and you are right - but you cannot stand alone. Your patch is not big enough. Workers, you fight for fair wages, you are right - but your patch of labor is not big enough. Women, you seek comparable worth and pay equity, you are right - but your patch is not big enough. (Applause)
Women, mothers, who seek Head Start, and day care and prenatal care on the front side of life, relevant jail care and welfare on the back side of life - you are right - but your patch is not big enough. Students, you seek scholarships, you are right - but your patch is not big enough. Blacks and Hispanics, when we fight for civil rights, we are right - but our patch is not big enough.
Gays and lesbians, when you fight against discrimination and a cure for AIDS, you are right - but your patch is not big enough. Conservatives and progressives, when you fight for what you believe, right wing, left wing, hawk, dove, you are right from your point of view, but your point of view is not enough.
But don't despair. Be as wise as my grandmama. Pull the patches and the pieces together, bound by a common thread. When we form a great quilt of unity and common ground, we'll have the power to bring about health care and housing and jobs and education and hope to our Nation. (Standing ovation)
We, the people, can win!
I don't think I'm alone. I think that an awful lot of progressives--starting in Chicago, Jackson's long-time base of operations--heard Obama's rhetoric of outreach in Jacksonian terms, as a focus on people and their problems circumventing the labels used to divide them, not as an actual repudiation of what some of those labels actually stand for. And I think that a lot of folks still hear Obama that way. There is even some truth in it--but, only a remnant, that we have to work very hard to revive.
A bit farther on, Jackson moves into his defense of the working poor, those whom the Democratic Party today seems to have totally forgotten about. This is something totally unlike what you could expect to hear from Obama. It is too "unbalanced", too lacking in praise for bankers, insurance executives, oilmen, speculators and entrepreneurs:
I just want to take common sense to high places. If we can bail out Europe and Japan; if we can bail out Continental Bank and Chrysler-- and Mr. Iaccoca, makes $8,000 an hour, we can bail out the family farmer. (Applause)
I just want to make common sense. It does not make sense to close down 650,000 family farms in this country while importing food from abroad subsidized by the U.S. Government. Let's make sense.(Applause)
It does not make sense to be escorting all our tankers up and down the Persian Gulf paying $2.50 for every $1 worth of oil we bring out, while oil wells are capped in Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana. I just want to make sense.(Applause)
Leadership must meet the moral challenge of its day. What's the moral challenge of our day? We have public accommodations. We have the right to vote.
We have open housing. What's the fundamental challenge of our day? It is to end economic violence. Plant closings without notice-- economic violence. Even the greedy do not profit long from greed-- economic violence.
Most poor people are not lazy. They are not black. They are not brown. They are mostly White and female and young. But whether White, Black or Brown, a hungry baby's belly turned inside out is the same color-- color it pain, color it hurt, color it agony.
Most poor people are not on welfare. Some of them are illiterate and can't read the want-ad sections. And when they can, they can't find a job that matches the address. They work hard everyday. I know, I live amongst them. They catch the early bus. They work every day. They raise other people's children. They work everyday.
They clean the streets. They work everyday. They drive dangerous cabs. They change the beds you slept in in these hotels last night and can't get a union contract. They work everyday. (Applause)
No, no, they're not lazy. Someone must defend them because it's right and they cannot speak for themselves. They work in hospitals. I know they do. They wipe the bodies of those who are sick with fever and pain. They empty their bedpans. They clean out their commodes. No job is beneath them, and yet when they get sick they cannot lie in the bed they made up every day. America, that is not right (Applause) We are a better Nation than that! (Applause)
That's what Jackson had to say about the working poor. And the working poor are those who have the most to gain from EFCA. Support for EFCA is not a narrow, leftwing position. It is not the leftwing mirror reflection of a stem-cell research ban. It is, quite simply, the continuation of the core promise of the Democratic Party across the generations, to fight for the dignity of the common worker.
And, finally, revealing a strikingly different approach to politics than Obama's calculated caution, Jackson talks about taking on the big challenges:
This generation must offer leadership to the real world. We're losing ground in Latin America, Middle East, South Africa because we're not focusing on the real world. That's the real world. We must use basic principles, support international law. We stand the most to gain from it. Support human rights; we believe in that. Support self-determination, we're built on that. Support economic development, you know it's right. Be consistent and gain our moral authority in the world. I challenge you tonight, my friends, let's be bigger and better as a Nation and as a Party! (Applause)
We have basic challenges - freedom in South Africa. We have already agreed as Democrats to declare South Africa to be a terrorist state. But don't just stop there. Get South Africa out of Angola; free Namibia; support the front line states. We must have a new humane human rights consistent policy in Africa.
I'm often asked, "Jesse, why do you take on these tough issues? They're not very political. We can't win that way."
If an issue is morally right, it will eventually be political. It may be political and never be right. Fanny Lou Hamer didn't have the most votes in Atlantic City, but her principles have outlasted the life of every delegate who voted to lock her out. Rosa Parks did not have the most votes, but she was morally right. Dr. King didn't have the most votes about the Vietnam War, but he was morally right. If we are principled first, our politics will fall in place. "Jesse, why do you take these big bold initiatives?" A poem by an unknown author went something like this: "We mastered the air, we conquered the sea, annihilated distance and prolonged life, but we're not wise enough to live on this earth without war and without hate."
As for Jesse Jackson: "I'm tired of sailing my little boat, far inside the harbor bar. I want to go out where the big ships float, out on the deep where the great ones are. And should my frail craft prove too slight for waves that sweep those billows o'er, I'd rather go down in the stirring fight than drowse to death at the sheltered shore."
We've got to go out, my friends, where the big boats are. (Applause)
This is what Frum sought to equate to Rush Limbaugh.
Nothing could be further from the truth. |
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