jesse jackson wiki

jesse jackson wiki : Jesse Louis Jackson Sr. (né Burns; born October 8, 1941) is an American civil rights activist, Baptist minister, and politician. He was a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988 and served as a shadow U.S. Senator for the District of Columbia from 1991 to 1997.

He is the founder of the organizations that merged to form Rainbow/PUSH. Former U.S. Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. is his eldest son. Jackson was also the host of Both Sides with Jesse Jackson on CNN from 1992 to 2000.

In both races, Jackson ran on what many considered to be a very liberal platform. In 1987, The New York Times described him as " a classic liberal in the tradition of the New Deal and the Great Society". Declaring that he wanted to create a "Rainbow Coalition" of various minority groups, including African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Arab-Americans, Asian Americans, Native Americans, family farmers, the poor and working class, and homosexuals, as well as European American progressives who fit into none of those categories, Jackson ran on a platform that included:

Creating a Works Progress Administration-style program to rebuild America's infrastructure and provide jobs to all Americans,

Re-prioritizing 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"

Reversing Reaganomics-inspired tax cuts for the richest ten percent of Americans and using the money to finance social welfare programs

Cutting the budget of the Department of Defense by as much as fifteen percent over the course of his administration

Declaring Apartheid-era South Africa to be a rogue nation

Instituting an immediate nuclear freeze and beginning disarmament negotiations with the Soviet Union

Supporting family farmers by reviving many of Roosevelt's New Deal–era farm programs

Creating a single-payer system of universal health care

Ratifying the Equal Rights Amendment

Increasing federal funding for lower-level public education and providing free community college to all

Applying stricter enforcement of the Voting Rights Act and

Supporting the formation of a Palestinian state.

With the exception of a resolution to implement sanctions against South Africa for its apartheid policies, none of these positions made it into the party's platform in either 1984 or 1988

Jackson has commended Obama's 2012 decision to support gay marriage and has compared the fight for same-sex marriage to fight against slavery and the anti-miscegenation laws that once prevented interracial marriage.He would be in favor of federal legislation extending marriage rights to gays, because he feels that if this issue is left up to the states, some states will continue to deny gays equal protection and equal rights.