Jackson Says He Won’t Start Third Political Party

The Rev. Jesse Jackson touted his Rainbow Coalition on Saturday as an alternative to the rightward drift of the Democratic Party but said he had no plans to start a third political party.

“If one has a substantial investment in a bank, one should not walk away in frustration and leave years of investment,” Jackson told a news conference wrapping up the coalition’s three-day organizing convention.

Jackson said Democratic Party leaders depend too much on public opinion polls and called his coalition “a live alternative to a paralyzed Democratic Party” and the views of Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr.

Organizer of Committee

LaRouche is the organizer of the National Democratic Policy Committee, which is not affiliated with the Democratic Party.

“We are the new majority,” said the former presidential candidate, flanked by a score of black, white and Latino politicians, farmers, union leaders and others.

“We are the enlightened Democrats. We do not have the option of being conservative one day . . . and Democrats when it’s convenient,” he said. “We must uphold that tradition that fights for the common man and common woman. We must challenge the basic rank-and-file Democratic Party to be a part of this new course.”

No Comment on Kennedy

Jackson said he had no comment when asked to respond to remarks by Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) that his 1984 presidential campaign was divisive and did more harm than good.

But he later charged that the Democratic Party is dominated by politicians “like Kennedy, with their hair drifting to the left and their behavior drifting to the right.” Kennedy, who recently changed his hair style, voted in favor of the Gramm-Rudman deficit-reduction law that has chopped money from many federal programs.

When asked to elaborate, Jackson said Democrats who invoke the name of Franklin D. Roosevelt “are talking democracy, but when they vote for Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, they are endorsing the aristocracy. Those who would invoke the name and gestures of John Kennedy (and) who would choose Rambo foreign policy over the Peace Corps are looking like Kennedy and acting like (President) Reagan.”

He added, “We challenge the party to be known by its behavior, not by its gestures, not by its hair styles and not by name-dropping.”

The Rainbow Coalition, with chapters in 41 states, is planning grass-roots campaigns to influence the 1986 elections. Jackson has refused to say whether it may also provide a base for him to mount a 1988 presidential bid.