(3 of 4)
That fervor has to be seen to be believed. In New York, well-dressed, usually sedate congregations of black churches regularly welcomed him by clapping, stomping then-feet and screaming, "Win, Jesse, win!" Crowds punctuated his litanies with wild applause and shouts of encouragement. In Pittsburgh last week, appealing for more federal aid to education, Jackson intoned, "Full scholarship to Penn State, four years, $20,000. Full scholarship, state pen, four years, $90,000. Train our youth! Train our youth! Train our youth!" Applause and cheers rose to screams with each repetition.
Jackson often gives a religious flavor to his theme of voting as a means of elevating black pride and dignity. His current favorite line, repeated with variations at every stop, refers to the shooting of Martin Luther King Jr. 16 years ago. In Pittsburgh last week it went like this: "On April 4, 1968, there was a crucifixion in Memphis. In New York this week we began to roll the stone away. The crucifixion of April 1968 will become the resurrection of April 1984." Supporters sometimes come close to deifying Jackson too. The Rev. Calvin Butts introduced the candidate to the congregation of the Convent Avenue Baptist Church in Harlem by crying: "Jesse Jackson is the son of God! He will set the devil running away!"
Amid such high emotions, Jackson has largely escaped the intense scrutiny and criticism on policy issues that other candidates must endure. His rivals would raise military spending much less than Reagan advocates, but Jackson nonetheless attacks them for backing any increase at all. Says he: "Gary Hart and Walter
Mondale can't have a missile in one hand and a dove in the other." His rivals have not responded with assaults on his plea for deep defense cuts, primarily because they do not see how it would gain them any votes. Jackson sometimes complains that the press does not feature his stands on issues as prominently as those of his rivals. But he has failed to provide figures on how much his domestic programs, such as increased aid to education and job retraining, would cost.
It might seem odd, then, that the core demand Jackson will press at the convention concerns the apparently technical matter of runoff primaries. But to Jackson it is central to his fundamental purpose: increasing black political power. Under the runoff system, which operates in ten Southern states and in some cities, two primaries are often necessary to decide a party nomination: if several candidates compete in the first and no one wins an outright majority, the two leaders must face each other in a second, runoff primary. In Jackson's view, this system prevents black candidates from winning office except in areas where blacks are a majority of voters. Says he: "Second primaries are the civil rights issue of this campaign. We're talking about displacing 20 Congressmen, about affecting Governors and Senators and mayors." He adds: "I could not in good conscience embrace a candidate" who failed to pledge elimination of runoffs.