Analysis: The Democratic Party Jesse Jackson Built

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

Does this sound like the platform of a Democrat who could win the 2028 First in the Nation presidential primary?

• Tax hikes on the richest Americans
• Single-payer health care.
• Free community college for all.
• Support for the creation of a Palestinian state.
• Reparations for slavery.

Congratulations. You just nominated Jesse Jackson. In 1988.

With Ronald Reagan still in the White House and most Democrats unwilling to even say the words “socialized medicine,” Jackson was pushing a government-run health care system well to the left of the Affordable Care Act President Barack Obama would promote two decades later.

Jackson came in second in 1988, losing the Democratic nomination to Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis. Four years later, moderate Democrat Bill Clinton would win the White House and soon declare in a State of the Union address that “the era of big government is over.”

But looking at today’s Democratic Party, one can make a case that it was Jackson—not Clinton—who ultimately won the fight for the party’s future.

Jackson championed economic populism, not Democratic Leadership Council-style triangulation. He would be touting Massachusetts-style millionaire’s taxes without apology.

He put race and identity at the center of the party’s politics, not merit or moderation. No “Sister Souljah” moments for him. Democrats, bitterly clinging to keeping boys in girls’ sports and guys in ladies’ locker rooms, would have an ally.

And Jackson argued the U.S. should be more adversarial toward Israel and more embracing of the Palestinians — even when they were led by unapologetic terrorists such as Yasser Arafat.

Years after apologizing for calling New York City “Hymietown” and saying he was “sick and tired of hearing about the Holocaust,” Jackson was still denouncing Israel as an “occupier” nation and cheering the post-Oct. 7 “From the river to the sea” protests on college campuses.

In other words, he could run as a mainstream progressive Democrat today.

Not so in 1988, when one of the few endorsements he received was from the socialist mayor of Burlington, Vt.: Bernie Sanders. And anyone predicting at the time that “Bolshevik Bernie” would go on to win the Granite State’s First in the Nation primary—twice—would have been urged to seek professional help.

Jackson didn’t fare nearly as well in New Hampshire as Sanders. While he came in second nationally, winning nearly 7 million votes, he finished fourth in the 1988 FITN primary with less than 8 percent of the vote.

Jackson and his allies lobbied for him to be Dukakis’ running mate, but it was never seriously considered. The good reverend was too radical. (Democrats instead chose sleepy Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas to run with Dukakis.)

Would Jackson be too radical for today’s New Hampshire Democrats—the same voters who backed Sanders? Who are eyeing a President AOC? Who are frustrated by the hat tips toward centrism coming from California Gov. Gavin Newsom?

Hardly.

By an ironic act of timing, the same week Democrats are remembering Jackson’s legacy, Bill and Hillary Clinton are preparing to testify before a House committee regarding their long-standing relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Bill’s trips to the infamous island.

Whose Democratic Party is it, anyway?

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.