Jesse Jackson urges progressives to win 'tug of war'
Saying liberals and conservatives are engaged in a "tug of war over the soul of America," the Rev. Jesse Jackson on Saturday urged progressives to win over the coal miners, farmers and others in Appalachia as Democrats struggle to regain power lost in November's election.
"Progressives must really penetrate Appalachia," Jackson said in an interview with the Tribune-Review. The region's rural poor have a "huge moral authority. No one can challenge their work ethic. No one can challenge their military commitment. No one can challenge their commitment to America."
Jackson spoke to about 250 people last night at the PA Progressive Summit awards dinner in the Sheraton Station Square. About 400 people are expected this weekend to attend parts of the summit, an annual gathering of liberal activists from around the state.
The meeting occurs after stinging defeats in the November election, when voters gave Republicans control of the U.S. House, state General Assembly, the governor's mansion and one of Pennsylvania's U.S. Senate seats.
The last time the summit took place, about a year after President Obama's inauguration and three years after Democrats won control of Congress, liberals spoke of a generational political realignment in their favor and permanent minority status for Republicans.
"They didn't lie down," Michael Morrill, one of the summit's organizers, said yesterday about the GOP.
The activists, bloggers and union members who make up the Democratic Party's base will have to pivot from trying to push legislation they support to trying to stop legislation they oppose, said Jeff Garis, another summit organizer.
Republicans won their majorities by pledging to close budget deficits through spending cuts. Jackson said this would lead to public sector layoffs while unemployment remains above 9 percent.
"Their answer to a fire is a gas distribution plan," Jackson said.
Domestic spending on New Deal-like projects to revitalize urban and suburban neighborhoods should be increased, he said. The spending should be offset by tax increases on the wealthy and by ending the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Jackson criticized the warm welcome given to Chinese President Hu Jintao last week by Obama. Noting China's poor human rights record, including the imprisonment of Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, he said the lavish treatment Hu received "was a statement to the whole world about our being weak on human rights and weak on workers' rights."
"Human rights is the key to economic growth" because it forces companies in other countries to compete with the same labor costs as U.S. companies, Jackson said. As when the Steelers and Jets play today, "the playing field will be even. ... If some had to go 12 yards to get a first down, and others had to go eight yards, we wouldn't like that game."
The decision some representatives and senators have made to sit beside colleagues in the opposing party during Obama's State of the Union address Tuesday amounts to little more than theater, Jackson said.
"They're trying to engineer civility," Jackson said. He said Republicans belied that sentiment by passing a rule that stripped voting rights from delegates from the District of Columbia and territories such as Puerto Rico. "They're sitting together, but they should be standing together for something. ... The absence of uncivil talk is not civilized legislation."
