The Van Jones Affair: An “Unfriendly Environment” for Progressives at the White House

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Sat Sep-12-09 11:18 PM
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The Van Jones Affair: An “Unfriendly Environment” for Progressives at the White House

Edited on Sat Sep-12-09 11:22 PM by Better Believe It

The Van Jones Affair: An “Unfriendly Environment” for Progressives at the White House
by Black Agenda Report executive editor Glen Ford

The firing of White House “green-jobs” point-person Van Jones is the latest manifestation of the Obama Administration’s abiding fear of the Right and distaste for progressives – although it is unclear which is the more powerful reflex. This weekend’s dismissal of the veteran activist, author and powerful motivational speaker turned administration functionary cannot but send a chill through the ranks of those who style themselves “progressives for Obama,” in and out of government, who believed they had found a political “home” under the Obama umbrella.

It would be wrong to conclude that Jones was “hounded” out of the White House by Fox News telereactionary Glenn Beck’s charges that the 40 year-old Yale-educated lawyer was a supporter of Mumia Abu Jamal, had signed a letter questioning the Bush Administration’s version of 9/11, and once referred to Republicans as “assholes” (quickly adding that he, Jones, “can be an asshole,” too.) This is pretty tame stuff, considering that the feigned outrage emanates from a crowd that routinely refers to the president as a socialist, an Arab and a non-citizen – epithets of the worst kind in Beck-Limbaughland. Besides, this is an administration whose Treasury Secretary neglected to pay taxes and whose top economic advisors, Larry Summers and Robert Rubin, were key players in setting the stage for the current economic disaster. Walking catastrophes like these men are thought by the administration to need no defense, yet the rising young Black star is cast out of the firmament.

Glenn Beck’s and the GOP’s regurgitated McCarthyism – of which Obama, himself, is the main target – is as transparent as it is vicious. But remember that Sen. Joseph McCarthy, the 1950s Red-hunter, could not personally fire anyone outside his own staff. Neither could the many freelance witch-hunting vigilante outfits of the era. McCarthyism’s many thousands of victims were laid low by employers and college deans and such who acted on the diabolical politician’s charges. Glenn Beck didn’t fire Van Jones, Obama did.

Or, to be more technically correct, the president and Jones’ boss, Nancy Sutley, chair of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, accepted his resignation. Although often referred to as the White House “green-jobs czar,” Jones was officially a Special Advisor for Green Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, one of nearly thirty special advisors in various disciplines scattered about the White House, most of whom are not required to be confirmed by Congress. Obama’s spin doctors encouraged the media to call these advisors “czars,” doubtless because some, like Jones, represented otherwise under-served political constituencies that the president wanted to feel empowered. Jones described himself as “the green jobs handyman,” and said “there’s no such thing as a green-jobs czar.”

Jones is anything but a hack, nor would he consent to be mere widow dressing. In making his now-infamous “Republicans are assholes” remark, Jones declared that “some of us who are not Barack Hussein Obama are going to have to start getting a little bit uppity." The uppity Jones got slapped down by his own president, who behaves as if progressives are his primary problem in forging a grand, “nonpartisan” consensus. Progressives were made unwelcome at White House forums on health reform, lest they spoil Obama’s courtship of Republicans and the drug and insurance companies they serve. Now Jones has been unceremoniously discarded so that Obama might reconcile with modern-day McCarthyites. It is not unreasonable to describe Obama’s White House as an unfriendly environment for progressives, and getting worse.

A shining progressive star of the Obama administration was unceremoniously dismissed to satisfy the McCarthyites of the GOP. But it must be noted that “Glenn Beck didn’t fire Van Jones, Obama did.” Jones' “talents are best put to use outside of this 'progressive-unfriendly' administration."

Please read the complete article at:

http://www.blackagendareport.com/?q=content/van-jones-affair-%E2%80%9Cunfriendly-environment%E2%80%9D-progressives-white-house

The Van Jones Affair: An “Unfriendly Environment” for Progressives at the White House

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