The Rev. Jesse Jackson Era is Over

Several Democratic activists today are lamenting the removal of the Rev. Jesse Jackson from a speaking role at the party’s convention later this month. Not only are they lamenting it, they’re downright mad about it, as reported by Bob Cusack in The Hill. I’m not sure why, though. Should anyone be surprised by this move?

Just last month, Jackson managed to shoot himself in the foot while it was in his mouth when he verbally castrated the putative nominee. He only has himself to blame. And what’s with the party these days? Do they think they can help their candidate get elected by constantly disparaging him? And then these mavericks want all the pomp and glory that comes with the big party during the convention?!

But loyalty notwithstanding, Jackson has been sowing these seeds of discord long before the decision was made to 86 him from the program. This sense of entitlement the reverend has apparently come to expect from the campaign is getting old. And if you don’t make an effort to finally, and completely, end it, then he and his radical positions will continue to haunt the party. Isn’t that what Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) wants — a move away from the divisive nature of racial politics that the Rev. Jackson has come to embody? That’s what’s so refreshing about Obama’s campaign — new thinking about a party that had grown stale in how it appealed to minorities.

Further, the Obama campaign deserves credit for placing Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey Jr. (D) on the program — an ardent supporter of the unborn. That sort of inclusiveness is just the sort of new direction Obama is espousing. Let’s hope his administration does more than just pay lip service to the issue if he’s elected.

This is not 1984 anymore. The Rev. Jackson honorably served his party through the talks he gave in conventions past. But lately, his kind of talk has served to undermine the new vision that Obama claims to share. And that can only mean one thing for Jackson — the end of an era.