Politicians love drama and no one enjoys it more than Jesse Jackson. Drama loves a victim, a bad guy, and a hero to make everything better. Politicians like to cast their constituents as victims of some other politician and cast themselves as the hero. It motivates crowds and marshals armies. It even gets out the vote.

But, at least in this case, it is a disrespectful lie. Jesse Jackson is so caught up in the drama triangle that has fueled his career that he only sees his supporters as characters on his stage. He does not believe they can change their lives on their own. Most of them have experienced more than their share of injustice and disrespect, but that hasn’t destroyed their self-respect.

Jesse Jackson cannot continue to play the victim and demonstrate respect at the same time. If he believed the average African American could do a good job of raising children then he would expect them to do it instead of make excuses for them. Then he would have to stop being a hero and become a leader. Ok, that’s probably not fair. Jesse Jackson has led and motivated Americans of all colors. It just feels like sometimes he wants to lead a mob instead of a community.

How quickly does a child learn to walk or ride a bike when their parents don’t think they can do it? Respect is crucial in all of our relationships. It is the foundation of the Oh Wow principles. If Jesse Jackson respected the strength and competence of blacks in America, then maybe he would start sounding a bit more like Barack Obama.