Until Michigan, few white Democratic leaders actually took Jackson seriously as a possible nominee. They purported to publicly, but privately consigned him to the subordinate role of campaigning energetically for the Democratic ticket in the fall. There was always a patronizing undertone to these backstairs debates over the price of Jackson's support. Even the great white question "What does Jesse want?" had a condescending ring. It was almost as if the Democrats planned to offer Jackson pomp and hoped he would not look too closely at the circumstances behind it ...Sometimes it doesn't feel like America is changing, but boy does this article serve as an eye-opening reminder of how toxic our racial politics used to be.But even as Jackson arouses Democratic passions, this blossoming love affair cannot forever mask the reality that if he is nominated the party will lose -- and probably lose big. Texas Agriculture Commissioner Jim Hightower, one of the nation's most articulate left-wing populists, insists that if Jackson is the nominee, the "increase in voters would more than offset defections." There is a glimmer of merit to the contention, since voter turnout was just 53% in 1984. But partisans made the same arguments for Barry Goldwater in 1964 and George McGovern in 1972. The results were two of the biggest landslides in modern history....
For 15 years the Democrats have caucused, conferenced and connived to find ways to erase the stigma of McGovernism from the party. But now, as the party is forced to contemplate the nomination of a candidate far more divisive than a professorish two-term Senator from South Dakota, there are almost no voices publicly raised in opposition...
Foreign policy remains the arena where Jackson's radical agenda most explosively collides with conventional political norms. Jackson's world view all but depicts South Africa as a greater threat than the Soviet Union. The candidate's formal briefing paper on "promoting real security" does not even mention in passing the need to counter Soviet mischief in the Third World. In Central America, Jackson would go far beyond cutting off funds to the contras; he would cease military assistance to the guerrilla-plagued governments of El Salvador and Guatemala because they are "waging war . . . against their own people." Not only does Jackson argue that "Western Europe should be responsible for its own conventional defense," he also appears sympathetic to unilateral cuts in the American nuclear arsenal in the frail hope that the Soviets would cut theirs.
With views and vulnerabilities like these, any other presidential candidate, white or black, would have been driven to the sidelines long ago. That is why it still appears improbable that the Democrats will take the bold -- and probably foolhardy -- step of nominating Jackson.
--Garance Franke-Ruta
