The departure of Van Jones from the White House is a sorry chapter in our politics.
Van is a gifted leader of ideas and of action. He makes connections, thinks beyond the box, and inspires others to join. As California chose to spend billions on prisons locking up nonviolent offenders even as its schools declined, Van mobilized tens of thousands of youngsters to march for “Books, not Bars.” As unemployment continued to plague our urban centers while the Bush administration remained in denial about global warming, Van became a leader in the Apollo Alliance. He inspired people across the country with the insight that the transition to a sustainable economy could be the greatest jobs program since the mobilization for World War II – and that we could insure that those who were left out of the old economy could be central to the green jobs of the new economy.
Leaving the White House will no doubt liberate this extraordinary patriot, and allow him once more to use his strong voice to make America better.
But his departure will only whet the appetite of the scurrilous right. It’s more than ironic that Glenn Beck – loudmouth wingnut conspiratorialist, who has reinvented himself as a sort of New Age Joe McCarthy, recycling the black helicopter, global conspiracy inanities that infect the right – should assail Van Jones for signing a petition calling for an investigation of the origins of September 11. Jones is not among those who believe the dark fantasies about the Bush administration, while Beck daily peddles preposterous paranoias and irresponsible slanders.
We must not forget the last times this craziness spun out of control. In the 1950s, the McCarthyite purges went on until finally, when he took on the Army, Eisenhower helped to dispatch him to his inebriated decline. In the 1990s, with the election of William Clinton, the wingnuts again took flight, with rumors of detention camps, United Nations takeover and government as jackbooted thugs ending tragically in the Oklahoma City bombing that left more than 100 government servants dead.
These folks have to be confronted, not ignored. That’s why the Color of Change effort to challenge the companies who advertize on Glen Beck’s show is so important. Beck has the right to free speech, even for his wildest idiocies. But companies have a right to decide if this nonsense is what they choose to be associated with. And consumers have the right to pass up the products of those who choose to promote Beck and his noxious brew.
