It's been obvious for several days that White House "green jobs" adviser Van Jones was not long for his job in the Obama administration. The only question, frankly, was whether he'd resign on Saturday, Sunday or Monday of the Labor Day Weekend. So...now he's resigned, citing "a vicious smear campaign against" him and pointing out that Glenn Beck et all "are using lies and distortions to distract and divide." In the end, though, Jones concluded, "We need all hands on deck, fighting for the future," and therefore "I cannot in good conscience ask my colleagues to expend precious time and energy defending or explaining my past."Anyway, Jones is gone, and I've got a bunch of mixed feelings about it.
1. Intense anger at the right wingers: Not to put it too delicately or anything, but Glenn Beck and his vicious, racist, insane ilk can screw themselves. The fact is, whatever Jones' sins - and we will talk about those in a minute - the Beck and Limbaugh lynch mob won't be satisfied until they destroy the Obama Administration, the Democratic Congress, and other Democratic or progressive leaders out there, health care reform, climate action, immigration reform, and any other hope for progressive change in this country. Giving them Van Jones' "scalp" will not pacify them or make them go away, it will merely embolden them to seek additional "scalps." If it's not another Administration official, it will be "death panels" or "Obama wasn't born in the United States" or some other insanity. So, yes, there's part of me that feels like we should never EVER give in to the rightwing nutjobs no matter what, because if we give an inch they'll take a mile, and because giving in to people like this is just blood in the water for them, a sign of weakness and a signal to attack further. Having said that...
2. Frustration and exasperation at Van Jones: How can such a talented, articulate, intelligent, and passionate advocate for "green jobs" - "a towering figure in the environmental movement," as the Post article describes him - possibly have been sucked in by 9/11 "Trutherism" lunacy? (this petition has his name on it and there are indications that he may have been connected with a newspaper called WAR TIMES, which among other things wrote that the U.S. post-9/11 war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan was an example of the "world's most powerful nation has mercilessly bombed Afghanistan and is installing a neo-colonial government of its own choosing.") Ugh. To demonstrate how out of the mainstream this thinking is, 9/11 "trutherism" is one of the few offenses for which you will be banned at Daily Kos. As if all this isn't bad enough, Jones was also involved - with a group called "Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement" (STORM), which was "explicitly committed to revolutionary Marxist politics whose points of unity were revolutionary democracy, revolutionary feminism, revolutionary internationalism, the central role of the working class, urban Marxism, and Third World Communism." Double ugh. So, again I ask, how can such a talented guy who has been making such a tremendous difference in helping to build a "green economy," in promoting alternatives to violence, in pressing for civil rights, and in lifting people out of poverty, possibly have fallen into 9/11 Trutherism and Communist craziness?
3. Mystification at the White House vetting people: Uh, hello White House vetting dudes (and dudettes)? You cleared a guy with the background spelled out in point #2 for employment in the Obama White House? What the hell? I'm truly flabbergasted and dismayed; did anyone even use "teh Google" on Jones during the vetting process? What do vetters do, anyway, if they don't screen out 9/11 "Truthers" and "revolutionary Marxists" from the White House? Sigh.
4. Optimism that Jones will be even more effective outside than inside: As bummed as I am that we're losing a strong advocate for a green economy within the Obama administration, I am pretty confident that Van Jones will continue to be an effective voice for these issues - in fact, he may end up being more effective - outside the White House. There, he won't have the constraints that come with working for an Administration and can speak exactly how he wants to speak. Call Republicans "assholes" - which, sadly, so many of them ("birthers," "deathers," etc.) clearly are these days - as he did recently? No, you certainly can't get away with that if you're in a Presidential Administration, but you certainly can if you're on his own. Personally, I'm very much looking forward to hearing what Van Jones has to say about Glenn Beck et al. once he's totally free to say it. This should be fun.
5. Cold political calculation: As someone at Daily Kos wrote, "it's going to be all Obama all the time this week. He doesn't need this Van Jones guy lingering over his message." I'd also add that in the days leading up to this resignation, the right-wing blogosphere and media machine (and, increasingly, Republican Congressmen) was pounding the you-know-what out of Jones, while the progressive netroots, organizations, Democratic elected officials, etc. were pretty much dead silent (at least publicly). Again, looking at this from a pure realpolitik/Machiavellian perspective, the pressure for Jones to resign was about a gazillion times greater than the pressure for the Administration to keep him on. Given that Jones actually did something wrong - signing that 9/11 "Truther" crap, being a "revolutionary Marxist," etc. - there's no way in hell that ANY ADMINISTRATION would have held its ground for long on this one. End of story.
In the end, this entire incident was a harmful, debilitating distraction - to make matters even worse, it was taking place in the days leading up to the 8th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks - but now it's most definitely time to move on. Let Van Jones do great work - which I'm confident he will - for "green jobs" and environmental justice outside the Obama Administration. Let the Obama Administration focus - among many other things - on getting health care reform passed, on continuing to get our economy back on track, and on figuring out how to win in Afghanistan. Let progressives fight for a public option, a strong climate/clean energy bill, etc. And, while we're at it, how about we all sign the petition calling on on advertisers to drop sponsorship of hatemonger Glenn Beck? If we can get Beck fired, that would be at least one excellent result coming out of this entire sorry episode...
UPDATE: One more thought - as offensive as Van Jones' "truther" and "revolutionary Marxist" views were, are they any worse than what so many Republicans in positions of authority did post-9/11, branding anyone a "traitor" who opposed the invasion of Iraq? Are they any worse than what so many right wingers and Republican officials (hello, Dick Cheney and George W. Bush!) have done in consistently denying the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change, stem cell research, evolution and many other areas? Are they any worse than the people at McCain/Palin rallies - or tea parties, or town hall meetings - screaming that Obama is a "terrorist" or "socialist" or "secret Muslim" or whatever (while elected Republicans nod in agreement or look the other way)? Are they any worse than the zillion other wacko (not to mention racist, Islamophobic, xenophobic, etc.) views many of these people hold (or at least fail to denounce)? Or how about people like Pat Buchanan, a Hitler apologist who continues to spew his anti-Semitism and racism on national TV? Why is that tolerated? Can we say "massive double standard?"
