Over the weekend, Kamala Harris appeared at a “resigning” celebration for Jesse Jackson. Jackson has stepped down from the post that made him wealthy. One of the speakers said of Jackson that “Next to Dr. [Martin Luther] King, [Jackson] is the most important civil rights leader in our modern-day history.”

Kamala Harris stepped up to praise Jackson. She has an affinity for tossing a word salad at crowds, but with her comments written out for her this time, it sounded almost like English.

It is critically important, that we who have been inspired by your leadership, take on our responsibility to see clearly the moment we are now in. And let us acknowledge that the fight is more important than ever.

Then she did what Democrat politicians always seem to do when pandering to a black constituency. Harvard-educated Barack Obama did it. So did the daughter of wealthy, urbane parents Hillary Clinton. There’s a term for it. It’s called code-switching. Politicians use it to appeal to the group they are speaking to. It is the worst sort of pandering. Kamala followed suit, and like Clinton, she isn’t very good at it. Although Harris spent a good deal of her time in Canada as a youth, she dutifully morphed into a Southern Baptist preacher for Reverand Jesse Jackson.

Kamala Harris takes the stage at Rev. Jesse Jackson's retirement ceremony:

"I said to the congressman, I didn't know he could preach like that! Ha ha." pic.twitter.com/9mQ0GsYNZY

— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) July 16, 2023

After acknowledging Jackson’s “pivot,” she cackled for the congregation, praising a congressman with her Jackson, Mississippi preacher impression.

The phoniness was appropriate for a Jesse Jackson sendoff.

Since the late sixties, Jackson has been race-hustling and hustling for money. Jackson burnished his resume with a massive fiction – that MLK died in Jackson’s arms. Jackson started “Rainbow Push” a few years after leaving MLKs organization, and it has been printing money for over five decades. Although Jackson may have had good intentions at some point, his organization seemed to be a precursor to BLM and the money grifts that followed.

Ken Timmerman wrote the definitive book on Jesse Jackson and his successful efforts to make corporations bend a knee to avoid boycotts or bad-faith threats of “racism.” In his book “Shakedown,” Timmerman goes into well-researched detail about Jackson’s “shakedown,” forcing corporations to pay to shut him up.

Unlike BLM, which would overtly threaten boycotts, Jackson was less obvious. 22 years ago, when Jackson was at the peak of his pile of money, Harold Doley Jr. saw what he described as  Jackson’s business “turning into racketeering.” Doley said:

His effectiveness is in shaking down corporate America. His income for his operations, since he’s come to Wall Street, has gone from $695,000 to over $17 million last year. There is no dot-com stock I’m aware of that has had that kind of success.

Doley was a wealthy man in his own right and built his wealth legitimately. Doley alleged that Jackson strongarmed corporations into giving Jackson and his cronies “special access and favors.” If the corporations played along, Jackson would ensure the business wouldn’t be accused of racism.

Almost all corporations “paid up” to make Jackson go away.

Now Jackson has “pivoted” and is no longer actively grifting. With any luck, Kamala Harris will be out of a job in 18 months and will need a new gig. If  “Southern Baptist preacher” doesn’t work out, maybe she can get a job with Rainbow Push as an “Emeritus ShakeDowner.”

Stay tuned.