by Christi Parsons
Rev. Jesse Jackson has some advice for Democratic presidential candidates: save something for the general election this fall.
Lately, the former Democratic presidential candidate and civil rights leader asserts, the campaigns have been “picking at each other” on minor matters of race rather than focusing on real issues of racial injustice.
“The problem with those fluffy fights is there can be long-term damage,” he said in an interview with the Tribune. “You break a lot of relationships . . . This is the intra-squad game. This is not the Super Bowl. Save some of that passion for the important game.”
Jackson, a supporter of Barack Obama, nevertheless defended Hillary Clinton’s recent remarks about the role of Lyndon Johnson in the struggle for civil rights.
Clinton set off an avalanche when she recently praised Johnson’s role, with some black leaders complaining she had implicitly diminished the role of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Jackson said that criticism of Clinton was not fair.
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But he also urged the candidates to focus on problems of housing, education and health care, and to work to “heal the breaches” that harm poor people of all races.
“What are the issues that really connect white and black?” Jackson said. “Most poor people in America are white. It’s a great moment to discuss structural inequality and how to heal the breach and close the gap.”