Van Jones to Conservatives: Put Down the Red, White & Blue Wrecking Ball | Big Think

Van Jones to Conservatives: Put Down the Red, White & Blue Wrecking Ball
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What should Democrats compromise on this year? Absolutely nothing, says Van Jones.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Van Jones:

Van Jones is a social entrepreneur, CNN political contributor and host of The Messy Truth with Van Jones. Famous for his heart-felt election night coverage, Jones showed up as “the voice of reason” for people in red states and blue throughout the volatile 2016 political season. In response to much civil unrest and energy post-election, Jones launched the #Love Army -- a values-based movement that is working for an America where everyone counts.

Jones has founded and led numerous social enterprises engaged in social and environmental justice, including The Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Color of Change, and The Dream Corps.

Jones is a Yale-educated attorney. He is the author of two New York Times best-selling books, The Green Collar Economy (2008) and Rebuild the Dream (2012). The second book chronicles his journey as an environmental and human rights activist to becoming a White House policy advisor.

He was the main advocate for the Green Jobs Act. Signed into law by George W. Bush in 2007, the Green Jobs Act was the first piece of federal legislation to codify the term “green jobs.” During the Obama Administration, the legislation has resulted in $500 million in national funding for green jobs training.

In 2009, Jones worked as the green jobs advisor to President Barack Obama. In this role, Jones helped to lead the inter-agency process that oversaw the multi-billion dollar investment in skills training and jobs development within the environmental and green energy sectors.

Jones has been honored with numerous awards and spotlighted on several lists of high achievers, including: the World Economic Forum’s “Young Global Leader” designation; Rolling Stone’s 2012 “12 Leaders Who Get Things Done”; TIME’s 2009 “100 Most Influential People in The World”; and the Root's 2014 "The Root 100." In 2017, Van Jones signed a management deal with Roc Nation, becoming the first political commentator & activist in their family. Jones lives in the Los Angeles area with his wife & two children.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIPT:

Van Jones: I can't think of a single issue that Democrats should drop. Which American value should Democrats betray, “America the Beautiful?” Should we say, “Listen, we don't care about ‘America the Beautiful’ anymore. We’re going to get in bed with the oil spillers and the clear-cutters and the mountaintop removers and the people who want to destroy America’s beauty for profit?” I don't want to betray that value. I’ve taught my kid to sing that song. I should probably stick up for it.

Which American values should we betray? You’ve got the Statue of Liberty. Maybe we should just knock that over and build a little mall there, a little strip mall where the statue used to be, so we can join the anti-immigrant crowd. No. The statute says, “Give me your tired, give me your poor, give your huddled masses who yearn to breathe free.” If that sentiment was good enough for our grandparents, it should be good enough for our grandchildren. The color of the immigrants might change. Our national values should not change. We are a nation of immigrants. We should be respectful of the contribution of immigrants. And you cannot be an anti-immigrant bigot and a patriot at the same time. Those are things that don't go together.

We’re supposed to give that up? We’re supposed to give up the idea of liberty and justice for all? Oh, okay, we believe in liberty and justice for all, just not for the gay people. You know, just leave them out. Or not for those poor urban black kids. We’ll leave them out. We’ll give them justice based on their hoodies they're wearing rather than based on what they’re actually doing. I mean, which American value are we supposed to betray?

I’m not going to betray any of them. I think we should have liberty and justice for all. I think we should honor not just the Statue of Liberty as symbol but as also the substance that that statue stands for. I think we should believe in “America the Beautiful" and defend America’s beauty. I’m not willing to give up any American values to appease people who, if you gave up those values, they would move ten more feet to the right anyway.

Anybody who is in public life needs to find out what they believe in. And public life will test you.

[eamster]

Back then we didn't have Medical Care, Social security, and unemployment checks. We weren't even a nation. So I really don't know how that is relevant now.

[Scribemo]

In Taiwan, where I currently live, the economy is pretty 'right-wing' in terms of taxing (plus, everyone seems to lie about taxes) but protects its market with regulations, has a dismal environmental regulatory scheme, and has very very low minimum wages.

However, they also have universal public healthcare, cheap education and subsidize agriculture to the point where food is universally cheap.Gov't intervention is taken as a given and it's a matter of what the govt should intervene in, not if.

[sEaNoYeAh]

Well yeah, that's part of my point. The founding of the US and the colonisation of the Americas was in reality a very dark and shameful episode in European history.

[Scribemo]

Minimum wage was established to prevent workers from going at one another's' throats in a downward earning spiral into poverty and despair. There is a reason there were major upheavals in the late 1800s and early 1900s for workers' rights and minimum wage in the US and across the world. There's a reason people died fighting for these things and why the government and big business fought them every step of the way. There's a reason why people of color and women started earning reasonable amounts.

[SubVLPer]

When Americans gave tax cuts to the wealthiest citizens in their country the number of jobs decreased significantly. So the idea that all the rich people in America are 'job creators' is a blatant lie. Most of the jobs that were created in America was by the middle class. I just don't understand the utter disdain that some people have for the middle class.

[jamesreeddahveed]

"give me your tired, give me your poor, give me your huddled masses that yearn to be free" fucking beautiful

[FdBaR]

Great post Van!

We people think of America, that's the America the world knows!

[jefffabiny]

WTF!? Why is this the first time I've ever heard of Van Jones? This guy is great! Great video, excellent synopsis of contemporary politics. The Ron Paul camp would do well to listen to this!! *braces for the Ron Paul fan backlash*

[Vondur]

They already despise him. Van Jones is probably on Fox News' top 10 most hated list.

[degreeRiffs]

The Social Security Act of 1935, the Homestead Act of 1862, The Davis–Bacon Act of 1931, G.I. Bill underwrites home ownership $120 billion 1932-1962

[LadyMaltese]

YES. Your comments VJ to conservatives, and all of them for that matter, is right on the mark. Stop slinging the proverbial RW&B flag and get together and accomplish things for working Americans. Well done, well thought out, and thanks. Love Big Think.

[RdclAccptnc]

They hate it because it's not the way they think.

[BipedalP]

Individualism doesn't build infrastructure. The government funded the highway system, public roads are built and maintained by the government, municipal water and waste removal are operated by the government, and until recently the USPS was the primary mail service in the country. There are so many things that people take for granted today that wouldn't exist without the government.

Tell me how individualism developed our country's infrastructure.

[Frostburn]

Our borders have already been open for a long, long time. The Irish came here in droves after their potato famine. Hell, none of us were here before the native Americans. We all came here at some point. And no, even though we had huge and massive immigration in the past, that didn't turn America into a place where nobody wants to go.

If someone came to your house and claimed it as their property, and that they won't let anyone else in, would you be okay with it?

[Scribemo]

I agree. There wouldn't be massive protests and issues with the government if they were!

[Guntank]

Treaty of Tripoli, signed my President John Adams and ratified unanimously by the US Senate on June 7th 1797. Article 11 "As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion"

[Fangtorn]

"Give me your tired, give me your poor, give your huddled masses who yearn to breathe free."

I wouldn't call that bigoted.

[Scribemo]

To give a bit to the discussion, I remember a case-study on Wal-Mart that went ike this:

Wal-Mart expanded to Mexico, and kept their automatic inventory tracking system from North America. They had a problem because they had an over-abundance of ice-skates and other such climate-useless items, but were selling them below price in sales to get rid of them. This meant the system automatically bought more, and they too had to be sold below market price.

[Scribemo]

He's saying that rich people telling everyone to do things that are bad for the country is not a good idea, not that the government should be communist.

[sesanner]

Clear thinking, clear speaking. Tough realities, yes, this is no easy path Van Jones describes, but it is a path we can explore . . . perhaps our next and now frontier . . . with a ton of thought-filled determination, with a clear conscience and with hope.

I think no one loses in Jones' scenario.