formation of a Palestinian state: good idea
giving reparations to descendants of black slaves: bad idea
giving reparations to descendants of black slaves: bad idea
formation of a Palestinian state: good idea
giving reparations to descendants of black slaves: bad idea
Speaking as a Canadian, from the land of reparations, why not? It wouldn't have to be a huge reparation, just some acknowledgement of guilt and complicity.
Speaking as a Canadian, from the land of reparations, why not? It wouldn't have to be a huge reparation, just some acknowledgement of guilt and complicity.
Speaking as a Canadian, from the land of reparations, why not? It wouldn't have to be a huge reparation, just some acknowledgement of guilt and complicity.
It's certainly possible for Jesse Jackson to win the nomination for 1988. I tend to think Jackson couldn't have won either the super-delegates or a majority going into the convention but I suppose he could. (If not, though, Mario Cuomo might be getting drafted.)
However even if he does win, he's facing Lee Atwater (and, I guess, Bush). People complain about Rove now, but Atwater was Rove on speed. Maybe not as smart or as grand in idea, but he was in it to win. Think South Carolina times the country, that's what Atwater was willing to do with Wille Horton and whatever else.
Jesse Jackson is not only a target, but a big fat bullseye. Once the Republican Party lets people know exactly what his positions are, he's screwed:
P.S.
Now that's funny.
it's not that he's black it's that he's a leftist( a real Left winger) heres what Jesse wanted:
1. creating a Works Progress Administration-style program to rebuild America's infrastructure and provide jobs to all Americans
2. reprioritizing the War on Drugs to focus less on mandatory minimum sentences for drug users (which he views as racially biased) and more on harsher punishments for money-laundering bankers and others who are part of the "supply" end of "supply and demand"
3. reversing Reaganomics-inspired tax cuts for the richest ten percent of Americans and using the money to finance social welfare programs
4. cutting the budget of the Department of Defense by as much as fifteen percent over the course of his administration
5. declaring Apartheid-era South Africa to be a rogue nation
6. instituting an immediate nuclear freeze and beginning disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union
7. giving reparations to descendants of black slaves
8. supporting family farmers by reviving many of Roosevelt's New Deal–era farm programs
9. creating a single-payer system of universal health care
10. ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment
11. increasing federal funding for lower-level public education and providing free community college to all
12. applying stricter enforcement of the Voting Rights Act
13. supporting the formation of a Palestinian state.
some good ideas (5, 10, 12) but most are unworkable or black Power based which would have white America running for the hills.
As is always the case in 1988 election threads, I think you need to have Iran-Contra = Watergate. Reagan's chief of staff thought he would have to resign over it. Even if he didn't, George Bush Sr. was even more closely tied to it, and perhaps that is better for this challenge. Lets say that Reagan stays in office, but Bush Sr. is forced to resign in disgrace along with Caspar Weinberger and others, but not after a nice, long, drawn-out series of questions in front of Congress.
From this point, it seems likely that Bob Dole will win the nomination. Preferably this is not easy for him, and perhaps a "successful" Robertson challenge that forces him to head to the right as far as he can in order to win Southern primaries will hurt him. To complete this, we need to have Dole appeal too much to the Religious Right, modifying the centrist positions he held throughout his political career in altogether too obvious ways. A half-dozen or so clips that show him contradicting his earlier views on taxes, abortion, etc. should help Jesse Jackson with moderates.
As criminal charges are brought up for Bush, Weinberger and others, Reagan issues pardons to the higher-ups, angering the country further. However, the "fall-guys" such as Poindexter and North get to sit in court for weeks and weeks: the only other media coverage features obsequious comment after comment by Dole in order to win over the RR. By the time Jackson and Dole wrap up their respective nominations, Jackson is within the margin of error when it comes to an election against Dole.
After two "meh" conventions (Reagan's "Gipper" speech doesn't come off very well when his party and administration is dogged by scandal), the actual general election arrives. Bob Dole has a reputation of being a Republican hatchet man, and he drops several "Democratic wars"-level comments to reporters, and visibly gets angry with Jesse Jackson in two televised debates.
Continuing his string of "luck", Dole also manages to pick Dan Quayle as Vice-President. Democratic veep candidate Gore tears him apart in the vice-presidential debate.
Jesse Jackson is at a McGovern-level of (non-) electability, and even all of the Republican miscues and scandals still leave them with a majority of 52-47 in the popular vote, much of this run up in the South. In the end, however, Jackson wins 276 electoral votes, including his running mate's precious 11 electoral votes from Tennessee, and sweeps into the White House, ushering in a new era of Republican ascendancy in Congress in 1990, and in the White House in 1992.![]()
Bump!
20 Years from 1998 we have a democratic black nominee.
What reprucossions could a successful Jackson nomination have had on OBama's campaign?