Jesse Jackson Claims the Tea Party Is the 'Resurrection of the Confederacy

As Americans prepare to mark the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s "I have a dream" speech during the March on Washington, Rev. Jesse Jackson has decided now would be a good time to accuse the Tea Party of being just like the Confederacy.

Rev. Jesse Jackson said the Tea Party is the "resurrection of the Confederacy." (Getty Images)

“The Tea Party is the resurrection of the Confederacy, it’s the Fort Sumter Tea Party,” Jackson told Politico, referring to conservative opposition to President Barack Obama.

Jackson said he is "absolutely" convinced that Republican opposition to Obama has more to do with race than it does with actually opposing White House policy.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Taylor Branch, who has written extensively on the civil rights movement, said Obama is apparently “begging" to ask “to what degree is the partisan gridlock that is frustrating his attempts to govern racially driven?”

Branch told Politico the president himself can’t ask that question as it may “alienate the millions of white Americans who voted for him.”

According to Politico, White House aides interviewed disagreed with Branch's point, claiming the president has never suggested racial animus as a possible reason for Washington gridlock.

“Bill Clinton was a white guy from the country, and they were just as vituperative,” one aide said. “But I don’t know what the president thinks about it.”

--

(H/T: National Review Online). Featured image Getty Images.

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

[related]