Jesse Jackson and Racism

Phillips’ supposition that “Jesse Jackson hugging Fidel Castro and Yasser Arafat reveals only slightly better judgment than Gary Hart hugging Donna Rice” is a journalistic smear, the type which is becoming the norm for journalists covering the Jackson campaign. Phillips, never long on analysis, has a morality which is based in politics. Seeing everything with a political morality, both Jackson and Hart are guilty of being caught with the goods unable to posit plausible deniability as a defense. With Phillips all that matters is getting caught. Lie to the American people, lie to Congress, sell arms to anyone for a buck, look the other way on the cocaine trade to support a cause the U.S. public would not OK, just don’t get caught. I direct Phillips to the Ten Commandments for a reference on morality with a concrete base he may be able to understand.

Phillips banks on merely mentioning the names of Castro and Arafat to arouse a moral backlash with political repercussions to dismiss the Jackson candidacy for his politically promiscuous hugs. It appears he and others like him have cried wolf once too often. The American people are not buying. The tactic is bankrupt. It appears the American people know the distinction between the moral and the political. The people keep voting for Jackson.

The Republicans have had their claim to a moral base self-destruct in lies, hypocrisy and dirty deeds of the religious right and the Iran-Contra fiasco. It appears that all that is left for the American people-- white, black, brown and yellow--is a politically poor black man who seems to know the real difference right and wrong.

RICHARD SCRIBNER

Pasadena