Bankole Thompson interviews Reverend Jesse Jackson about his run for office in 1988 and 1984 and how those campaigns impact contemporary campaigns and elections. November, 2016.
Transcript:
Well Reverend Jackson thank you so
much for the opportunity to talk to you
now he said I want to begin by
looking at your historic run for
office when you laid claim to
the Democratic nomination and
how did it pave the way for Barack Obama
presidency would be that presumptuous but
suffice it to say in some point
someone starts and run just to run and
if I had not run in my cabinet with
set people up right to disappoint them
I ran and they did for I learned that
when there's a surrogate I learned
the campaign and I was a New Hampshire not
just in the southern states we were told
you shouldn't I was to white all of the
good the fund you can't be valid if you
don't take it all on somebody we
found out the family farmer and
lost the farm to the corporate farmer and
the blackness of the record lost
a job to corporations going abroad and
more common than they realize is
an economic class issue class issue and so
we began the hook up the family farm and
the unemployed urban worker and
a coalition was born so
we got double digits and
with that was a big deal we actually beat
gooing get thought that was a big deal but
I mean the whites
could he have voices beyond the limits
of race that's significant You mention
that because you know run just run
away to use overhead lines and
people to this day refer to that era as
one of the watershed moments in American
politics in Democratic politics did you
feel that you were on the Trash folder for
a major change when you look back
do you feel it was a great move for
you to have made that
kind of a bold run and
to really democratize process I don't
know how big the moment was in the moment
because I was running as an organizer
in the political season the primaries
the candidates to determine the agenda and
the press we're going to get our civil
rights issues raised we'll talk about
urban policy and free Mandela and
join the choir who could be hurt by
running and running to the press.
Since And so by 88 there was
an appreciation of what we brought
to the conversation I remember one night
we were told just you know the moral right
we're going to move beyond all these
debates have been discussed foreign policy
so if you don't want to come you'll have
to go from there you go from promise and
I'll just you want to understand
I salute as I'm anxious to depart
from policy to come a sickness of
what you know about foreign policy so
we can go on the phone policy
signals from Paul this is hopes.
One day I was in the gym with
then something broke Obama
he said you know I was a Colombian to
debate the hot Monday on some of the B.
and I said this can happen
as soon as I'm up and
he said this is going to happen and
someone sees for
the next generation was ultimate mission
and we didn't have the money to compete at
the highest level of fund raising my we
bring on the cultural walls and left and
not come down he said I said as
a student said this can happen and
I watched him walk across the essays
that night as the want to and T.
has slowed down my face it happened.
So often you plant seeds The grew
trees in the WHO's will never see saw
you see you planted grew a tree and I said
I want to say watching the winter that was
a big deal Bernie Sanders made it clear
on the campaign trail to let us know
Senator Bernie Sanders that he supported
you Ron in the eighty's for president and
he built largely his populism
on your campaign of the 84 and
so forth he brought a lot of people around
this movement a sign this movement around
Democratic politics what happens to that
movement now moving forward as a demand
account of political accountability
those who are in that movement.
Must belong this as well as if
they let the inspiration evaporate
trend in the people now
it was just a phase.
They must not allow themselves about
the vote for you personally to fulfill
the mission for
when I read something call one a to call
to become a delegate to the get 35 percent
of the vote which is 7 high reduced
it down to 15 and we move from one
of the goal to proportionality
I mean you get 50 percent I get for that
business or close races you see a lot of
one big tent we call it the Jackson
rule that well I don't but that doesn't.
Help.
You get your share Thank you Reverend.
Wright The Reverend Jesse Jackson
founder and
president of the Rainbow Push Coalition
America's premier civil rights leader and
bankroll a Thompson.