This is a little profile of everyone's favorite racial demagogue, Reverand Al Sharpton, which I wrote for my school paper. It was really difficult to keep my contempt for Sharpton from poisioning my writing, but fortunately, the facts are are damning enough.
Sharpton, The Democrats’ Loose Cannon
With his checkered past and liberal agenda, Reverend Al Sharpton is probably the most controversial Democrat running for the party’s presidential nomination. Sharpton looks to attack his rivals on the left flank; he describes himself as the only person running that is "anti-war, anti-death penalty, anti-tax cut across the board." As one of the most prominent liberals in the country, Sharpton has roundly criticized the Democrats’ move to the center in recent years, attacking the moderate Democratic Leadership Council and blaming the Party’s recent misfortunes on its failure to take a more liberal stand on the issues.
Al Sharpton has been a passionate activist, inspired by his hero’s, Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson and Congressman Adam Clayton Powell and deeply involved with protest as well as electoral politics for years. He’s crusaded vigorously against police brutality, most notably in the Amadou Diallo, case, where an unarmed black man was shot by New York City police officers. Sharpton’s activism has not been without its risks, a white man stabbed him in 1991 after he protested the death of a black youth at the hands of a white mob in Bensonhurst. Al Sharpton later visited his assailant in the hospital and forgave him. Sharpton has also been jailed for protesting military training exercises on the island of Viques. Some of the Reverend’s other activities have been the source of a great deal of controversy and have made many feel that Sharpton is a divisive demagogue. The Tawana Brawley case damaged Al Sharpton’s image in many people’s eyes. Sharpton became the spokesperson for Tawana Brawley, a black teenager that claimed six white men raped her and whose claims were later proved false. One of the accused later sued Sharpton for his role in the affair and won a substantial sum in damages. Critics have also claimed that Sharpton’s rhetoric is irresponsible and dangerous, some hold him partially responsible for the burning of a small business by a deranged man, whose owner Sharpton attacked as a “white interloper”.
Though he has never held elected or appointed office, Al Sharpton claims the he is qualified to be president of the United States and takes considerable offense when his qualifications are questioned, in his recent book, Al on America, he writes that “To even question why I'm running is insulting”. This is not the first time Sharpton has jumped into the fray of electoral politics, he’s run unsuccessfully in the Democratic primaries for one of New York’s Senate seats and the for mayor of New York City.
Some Democrats are worried about Sharpton’s campaign, they see it as a threat to party unity and success in the general election. Sharpton is extremely independent and has been known to attack other Democrats as well as conservatives. After losing the Democratic primaries in 1992 for the New York Senate race, Sharpton refused to endorse the party’s nominee. In another New York senate race, Sharpton tried to weaken Democratic Senator Moynihan’s reelection bid by running as a third party candidate. Al Sharpton has also endorsed Republicans, in 1986 he endorsed Al D’Mato in the New York senate race, he also backed Michael Bloomberg in the 2001 mayoral election. These cases of disloyalty have helped fuel some Democrat’s concerns about Sharpton’s presidential campaign. They fear that Sharpton will use the race as an opportunity to cause more trouble for the Democrats. Sharpton is seen by many political analysts as a very serious threat to North Carolina Senator John Edwards, because Al Sharpton maybe able to critically weaken Edwards in the South Carolina primary.
While its extremely unlikely that Al Sharpton will be nominated by the Democrats (a recent CNN poll said that he’d receive only 7% of the vote), one thing is certain; Sharpton’s polarizing image and sometimes outlandish character guarentee a lively primary.