Hands-On Ministry The Reverend Jesse Jackson, 1941-2026

Steyn Online ^ | 21 Feb 2026 | Mark Steyn

[Rummyfan]

The Reverend Jesse Jackson died this week, prompting tributes from far and near:

Former president Barack Obama said Jackson "laid the foundation for my own campaign to the highest office of the land".

So his principal contribution was as Obama's warm-up act? One begins to understand why the Rev was so eager to "cut his nuts off". So poor Jesse had to make do with being (as I used to call him back in the Nineties and Oughts) President-for-Life of the Republic of Himself. The pansies of The Orange County Register refused to print that phrase, which is why I no longer appear in their pages, if indeed they still have any.

Still, he had a good run, and one must respect that. For my own part, my favourite phase of his long celebrity was a blessed forty-eight hours a quarter-century ago. Here's how I put it in The Spectator of February 10th 2001. You won't find this in the New York Times obit:

~I have been on a short vacation. Well, not that short as it turned out. Apparently, I was away so long I missed the entire duration of Jesse Jackson's withdrawal from public life. Citing his need to 'revive my spirit and reconnect with my family', the Reverend Jackson withdrew from public life on Thursday, 18 January. He returned to public life on Saturday, 20 January. I missed the whole thing. Two complete days without the Rev Jackson on TV! No fewer than forty-eight — count 'em! — hours without the Reverend standing in the street shouting lamebrain anti-Dubya jingles like 'Stay out the Bushes!'

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TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: bloggers; hymietown; jackson

[Rummyfan]

[captmar-vell]

I wish we had all listened to Jesse when he tried to warn us.
“Stay out the Bushes.”

[rlmorel]

“Hands on Whitey’s Wallet” Ministry.

[RoosterRedux]

"Hands-On ministry"?

Yeah. Jesse's "hands-on" the extorted corporate money in the name of the "racism" he kept alive.

Grifter.

[Rummyfan]

Bill Clinton also found time to call Jesse, which was sporting of him because at the time the soon-to-be ex-President was busy unscrewing every light fixture and faucet in the White House and piling 'em into the trunk of his getaway car. New York furniture manufacturer Steve Mittman, who gave two sofas, an easy chair and an ottoman worth $19,900 to the White House 'permanent collection', was surprised to find that the Clintons had strapped them to the roof-rack and moved them up to Chappaqua. Lee Fickes of Cincinnati was equally bemused to find that his kitchen table, donated as part of a $396,000 refurbishment of the Executive Residence, had also disappeared. With hindsight, it's clear that the National Parks Service, which runs the White House, made a big mistake not getting a security deposit when the Clintons moved in. Even Bill's usual defence of 'walking a fine line' doesn't quite work here: this isn't a deplorable 'ethics violation', but outright theft. But Bill doesn't care, any more than he cares what people think of his dodgy last-minute, non-Justice-Department-approved pardons.

Ah the Clintons... so many memories of theft and graft and corruption. And they are still plying their trade.

[cgbg]

My favorite Jesse Jackson quote:

“There is nothing more painful to me at this stage in my life than to walk down the street and hear footsteps… then turn around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”

Jesse was nobody’s fool.

[dfwgator]

He became a “Step-N-Fetchit” for White liberals.

[cgbg]

Jesse always got his cut.

Like the old Tamany Hall bosses...he saw his opportunities and he took them.

[GrumpyOldGuy]

The Con Man Jesse Jackson is a MUCH more accurate description.

[clee1]

J.J. has been an irredeemable POS since day 1.

[Racketeer]

Great Riddance!!

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

The hard old days. Now even an apology is unnecessary. Forgiveness is unnecessary. Then again, Mercy is verboten.

Cognitive dissonence is the norm.

Save the rapist illegals. No jew is innocent.

[DarrellZero]

There might have been a time when JJ was a guy who wanted to do some good.

By the time I came of age, however, that time was long past. He was just an extortionist.

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

He made it look essy, but folks, it took skill and talent.

Look at david hogg of the parkland massacre fame. He too started early...but has failed repeatedly and humiliatingly to become a jesse social warrior.

Jesse and al shortpin....giants among grifters.

[rlmorel]

I admit, I have a hard time wrapping my head around these changes in our society, but since I didn’t initiate them...I certainly don’t feel inclined to meet them halfway, because they viewed MY cultural landscape as something to be conquered, raped, pillaged, and burned, and approached their Leftist goals without any consideration for mine.

[Paal Gulli]

The race-mongering-poverty-pimp-in-chief afforded me one of the proudest moments of my life.

He gave me the opportunity to refuse to shake his hand.

I was staying not far from San Fransiko while the 1984 demoncrat unnatural contamination was in progress, so I decided to drop in to watch the freak show.

I was ambulating through the Castro district and as I passed across a small plaza or some such I noticed a sizeable number of youngish men in nice suits, conspicuously keeping their distance from each other, and all having an embossed pin of some sort in a variety of colors on the left lapel of their coats. I smelled executive protection detail prepping for the arrival of their principal and found a quiet corner to loiter in and watch from.

I happened to have picked the doorway of a storefront near one of the corners of the plaza, and directly a limo pulled up to that corner about 30 feet from where I was standing. One of the business suited young men came over and opened the limo’s back door and out stepped demoncrat presidential candidate, the Right Reverend Jessie Jackson.

Jessie proceeded down the sidewalk grinning broadly and shaking every hand as he went, except when he got to me, I just stared blankly at him. I obviously wasn’t the first because he didn’t miss a beat and went to the next obliging hand.

My only regret is that I couldn’t stand with my arms crossed AND take a picture of the event.

[cymbeline]

A Steyn masterpiece!