Home > ’Rainbow’ votes are key to victory
By Jesse Jackson
IN 1984 I said to the Democratic Convention: "This is not a perfect party. We are not a perfect people. Yet we are called to a perfect mission — to feed the hungry, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless, to teach the illiterate, to provide jobs for the jobless, and to choose the human race over the nuclear race."
Our goals in 1984 were the same as Fannie Lou Hamer’s 20 years earlier. To open up our politics to all our people. To register the neglected. To build a more perfect union. An unbroken chain of democracy.
In 1984 our campaign registered and inspired 2 million new voters. Two years later we took back the Senate on the strength of these new voters. Those same Senate seats are contested again this year. Now, as then, we need a progressive Southern strategy mobilizing our base.
The South is unnaturally conservative, a sad legacy of slavery and segregation. But the South is our poorest region and therefore has the least to conserve. The power of change in the South is in the unregistered hands of those who once picked cotton and the unrecognized hands of those who once picked lettuce. Those who only two generations ago could not use a public toilet across the old Confederacy now hold in their hands the power to pick presidents and determine the direction of our nation.
Let’s not forget: Democratic presidential nominees have now outpolled GOP nominees for three elections in a row. Each time the Republican nominee won the most white votes while the Democratic nominee won the most "rainbow" votes — and the most votes overall. Bush, Dole, and Bush II got more white votes; but Clinton (twice) and Gore outdistanced them by adding more black, brown, red, and yellow votes to their white support. There are still 8 million to 10 million African-Americans not registered to vote.Additionally, there are some 4 million registered African-Americans who have not been motivated to come to the polls. These rejected stones can become the cornerstones of a new South.
The black vote can change our nation. If energized, African-Americans can determine the direction of the parties, the courts, our economy, global affairs, Africa. Those in the margins are the key to our destiny, to challenging right wing control of our country, to building a one-big-tent America.
The Kerry-Edwards ticket has been given the opportunity to seize this pregnant moment in history. Kerry is a man of military valor, a consistent worldview, a keen sense of social justice, and has a scholarly curiosity that enables him to grow. He made the bold and sound judgment to choose John Edwards, a son of the South with a message of healing and hope. They embody the right stuff, expounding a vision of a one-big-tent America where all are included and hope abounds. The Kerry-Edwards ticket is far more than "anybody but Bush-Cheney" — this ticket is a clear alternative, and all who care about and all who are affected by public policy must register and vote.
The Rev. Jesse Jackson is a former presidential candidate.