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[bryant]

Jesse Jackson wants Terry Schiavo kept alive. I must confess a certain bleak curiosity; will those on the left who excoriated Ralph Nader hold Jesse to the same standard?

Comments

[ivan23.livejournal.com]

Excellent question. I'm afraid my guess is "not in a million," but we'll have to wait and see.

[gentlyepigrams]

I missed the Nader thing, but I'm not any happier to hear about Jesse Jackson putting his $0.02 in than I am about Nader doing it. Celebrity politicians who have become interested in the profound moral injustice of this case at this late date attract my profound cynicism, no matter which side they're on.

[telepresence.livejournal.com]

I certainly will. I'm actually rather surprised he's there. I'd think he was smart enough to come to the "correct" conclusion on this case, or at least be savvy enough to recognize it as a loser politically.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

The other interesting question: what's the reaction from the two opposing factions on the right? I'd guess the socons are just shrugging, while the libertarians are pointing out the bizarre bedfellows.

[tavella.livejournal.com]

Er, why would you think he wouldn't be excoriated? If anything, Jesse Jackson has a longer history of following the cameras than Nader does; his cynical publicity seeking goes back to the death of Martin Luther King, at the very least.

[bryant]

Because Nader is perceived as having cost Gore the election. There's a substantially different degree of resentment there. Which is not to say it's not justified, just noting that it's there.

I agree re: Jesse. He's a spotlight guy.

[frosch.livejournal.com]

Jesse did a lot of good on the south side of Chicago in the late '70s. As much as the Atriots would howl to hear this, he earned his street cred on the front end of his career, whereas the trendy liberal hero Barack Obama is still trying to prove he's not the yuppie elitist his resume says he is.

These days, unfortunately, he's just playing chess. Every move he makes is so coldly calculated for self-promotion that it's sickening to watch.

[sebastian-tombs.livejournal.com]

True, but in many ways, he was Rev. Al Sharpton for a long time, until he decided to go more mainstream (as Rev. Al has more recently, in a remarkable job of re-inventing one's persona).

I think that Rev. Jackson won't be pilloried for this, because he has always portrayed himself as a Reverand, and his views representing his faith. The people who are allegedly "normal people" that choose when to use the "Faith" card, and when to leave it up their sleeve should get a harder time on all this. Also, Rev. Jackson isn't pushing a product with each speech, as is Rev. Schuller when he speaks to this issue.

Another example is Pat Robertson. He shouldn't be tarred and feathered for his role in trying to keep her alive because it completely fits his profile and is completely consistent with everything he does and says. He should be tarred and feathered because *everything* he says is designed to haul the human race back into the dark ages, but that's another issue entirely.

[bryant]

An interesting point, re: faith. I might buy that.