Van Jones is Dead. Long Live Van Jones!

"... the 20th century
has been characterized by three developments of great political importance:
The growth of democracy, the growth of corporate power, and the growth
of corporate propaganda as a means of protecting corporate power against
democracy." --Alex Carey, Australian social scientist

Three years ago I traveled
from Maine to the Ella Baker Center in Oakland, California, to meet
Van Jones so I could paint his portrait for my Americans Who Tell the
Truth series.

I had heard a lot about him
& read his speeches & was incredibly impressed with his courage
and articulate vision in taking on some of the world's most serious
problems: poverty, environmental racism, and climate change. More importantly,
he understood the relationship between those issues, and that they could
be confronted in the most efficient and just manner if seen as one problem:
bring the manufacturers of green energy equipment into the poor and
despairing ghetto where the jobs are most needed, educate poor minorities
to do these jobs ( thus providing hope), and then construct the solar
panels, windmills, and geothermal machinery that will be needed to power
our future in a sustainable way. Everybody wins. Right? Van Jones
invited the people of this country to begin dreaming again --- to dream
that a future based in justice and sustainability was possible. He said,
"Dr. King didn't get famous giving a speech that said, 'I have
a complaint.'"

Well, it should come as no
surprise that the 'everybody wins' scenario is not popular with
everybody. It's a loser if you are a big oil or coal corporation that
doesn't want a lot of attention paid to climate change. It's heresy
if you don't care about the poor and consider them the necessary collateral
damage of capitalism. It's anathema if you believe that economic justice
is for socialist wimps, and sustainability is a code word for cutting
into corporate profit. It's threatening if you are corporate media
supported by the dissemination of corporate friendly news.

So, when Obama invited Van
Jones into the White House as his guru for green jobs and innovation,
the attack dogs howled. They smelled blood.

I suspect that most Americans
had never heard of Van Jones then, and were still unaware of him until
he resigned. And then they probably breathed a sigh of relief that this
"communist," "racist," "9/11 conspiracy nut," "enemy of
America" had been ratted out.

How do I know he was these
things? For the past month my website has been bombarded with vicious
attacks on Van Jones. How could I possibly have supported and honored
this monster who is trying to poison our apple pie? Didn't I know
that this gremlin was perched on Obama's shoulder whispering his loathing
of America into his ear?

I don't really know who writes
this nasty stuff. But I suspect, like with many of the people who are
shouting lies to block health care reform, that it comes from people
who have been easily manipulated with fear and racism to attack those
who would actually make their lives better. It's come to that ---
to advocate for the common good is to advocate for communism. To defend
justice is to commit treason. To be concerned for the future is to impede
progress. To feel compassion, to walk a mile in another's shoes, is
to be an pathetic idiot. To think that democracy means equality rather
than domination is naive.

One might wonder why Obama
did not do more to protect Van Jones. But when Jones referred to Republicans
as "assholes" as a euphemism for ruthless, he was beyond protecting.
It didn't matter that Jones said he would have to become an asshole
himself to fight for his policies. The soundbite was history. Nothing
to do but cut him loose. But the deeper reason he had to be cut loose
was that Obama would have had to tell the truth to protect him: yes,
Van Jones is for economic justice; he is for conservation and alternative
energy; he's for prison reform; he's for a re-structured economy
based in sustainability, not exploitation and profit; he's for a serious
investigation of 9/11; he believes that 'clean coal' is absurd,
etc. Obama could not protect him, because to do so he would have
had to endorse Van Jones' beliefs. He was not about to do that.

I think it's all for the
good. I don't think that Van Jones should have ever joined the administration.
He's much stronger on the outside organizing people to fight for the
things he believes in. But he's tainted now. He won't be able to
get grants from the status quo philanthropic organizations. He's a
mongrel with a tin can tied to his tail. That's good. This brilliant
man will now have to embrace courage, truth, justice, nature and love
and start over. Leading. Organizing. As Frederick Douglass said, "Power
concedes nothing without a demand." And you can't make demands if
you hoping for crumbs while camped in the Man's coat pocket.