Denied at the ballot box, the relentless self-promoter’s brand of race-obsessed, Israel-hating grievance politics has entrenched itself as the Democratic Party’s prevailing orthodoxy
Only death could silence Jesse Jackson. The relentlessly self-promoting culture warrior—who famously threatened to castrate Barack Obama during the 2008 election—finally fell quiet on Tuesday. He was 13 months older than Joe Biden.
Jackson parlayed his brief proximity to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. into a semi-notable career as an omnipresent activist, political candidate, and opportunist. He never achieved success at the ballot box—failing twice to win the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1984 and 1988—but ultimately prevailed on the battlefield of ideas. Four decades later, Jackson’s brand of race-obsessed, Israel-hating grievance politics has entrenched itself as the Democratic Party’s prevailing orthodoxy.
Possessed of a messianic narcissism that alienated friends and foes alike, Jackson pioneered the art of hanging around the podium at press conferences and getting himself on camera in moments of national controversy. He stopped running for office in 1988, but never stopped sounding off. As Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington, D.C., once said: “Jesse don’t want to run nothing but his mouth.” Truer words have never been spoken by a disgraced crackhead—with the possible exception of Hunter Biden’s eloquent condemnation of the Pod Save America bros.
Running his mouth routinely got Jackson into trouble—but also generated headlines—in a way most modern Democrats would appreciate. After meeting with Palestinian terror boss Yasser Arafat in 1979, he described support for Israel as a “poisonous weed that is choking Judaism.” Shortly after launching his first presidential campaign, Jackson used the derogatory term “Hymietown” to describe New York City’s Jewish population. In 1991, he helped his perennial frenemy, the formerly obese Rev. Al Sharpton, inflame tensions during the Crown Heights riot—the worst outburst of anti-Semitic violence in modern American history.
Jackson was eager to take credit for Barack Obama’s success in the 2008 Democratic primary, but also struggled to contain his raging jealousy. One month after Hillary Clinton conceded the race, Jackson inevitably disgraced himself when a live microphone caught him lashing out at Obama for “talking down” to black people. “I want to cut his nuts off,” Jackson said between takes during one of his many television appearances throughout the campaign. In a post mourning Jackson’s death, President Donald Trump praised the iconic activist for his thankless effort to elect “Barack Hussein Obama, a man who Jesse could not stand.”
Boasting close friendships with iconic figures such as Ted Kennedy, Michael Jackson, and Bill Cosby, Jackson fathered at least six children, including a daughter in 1999 after having an affair with one of his employees. His most notable son, Jesse Jackson Jr., served nine terms in the House of Representatives before resigning in 2012 to serve a 30-month sentence in federal prison for misusing campaign funds to the tune of $750,000.
Days after then-president Joe Biden pardoned his son Hunter in 2024, Jackson formally requested a pardon for Jesse Jr. Biden (hilariously) denied the request while granting pardons or commutations to a motley array of drug lords, Ponzi schemers, and corrupt officials—including a Pennsylvania judge who accepted $2 million in illegal kickbacks for funneling juveniles to for-profit detention centers. Undeterred, Jesse Jr. is now running to represent his old seat in this year’s midterms.
Jackson Sr., meanwhile, leaves behind a complicated political legacy that has influenced the direction of both major parties. Donald Trump took over the Republican Party and won (at least) two national elections by embracing Jackson’s bombastic style and empathy for low-income, low-education Americans—what Jackson called the “disrespected” and “despised” segments of society. Democrats, on the other hand, have adopted Jackson’s hatred of Israel and obsession with racial grievance while transforming themselves into a party of overeducated elites.
As much as Jackson’s style of politics has come to dominate the Democratic Party, his old-school radicalism has been supplanted in some cases by the “warmth of collectivism” and other trendier alternatives. He helped popularize the term African American in an effort to promote cultural heritage. It is rarely used these days in favor of “people of color,” which is viewed as more progressive for reasons no normal person would understand. Jackson’s memorable rallying cry throughout the 1980s—”keep hope alive”—seems almost quaint today amid the doomsaying revenge porn rhetoric from similarly ambitious Democrats in 2026.
A chilling thought: He might be missed.
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