Van Jones Knows What We Have to Do Next [View all]

In an exclusive interview with Van Jones before tonight’s CNN special, The Messy Truth, Mark Anthony Green speaks with the man who comforted liberal America on election night about everything: why it all went wrong, the difference between bigots and Trump voters, and where we go from here.

http://www.gq.com/story/van-jones-knows-the-messy-truth

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You know, it's a very small number of people who are part of the alt-right. People act like 50 million people just signed up to be part of the neo-Nazi movement. That's not true! You have a group willing to tolerate the participation of people like that, and that's scary. But it's wrong to convince yourself that people who are willing to put up with it are themselves bigots. And that's where the left is going wrong. The left is making it a binary choice: You're either with the bigots or you're with the progressives. You're a racist or an anti-racist. You're either a sexist or an anti-sexist. And based on that binary, we now have convinced ourselves that half the country is raving-lunatic white supremacists. That's not true! It's more of a range.

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But, Van, if you would vote for one who is going to put in power white nationalists, how are you not guilty of allowing it? I think you're letting them off the hook a little easy.
Well, here's the deal. This is why people are inordinately depressed. That analysis you just gave—if you voted for a bigot, you are a bigot, or not much better than a bigot—that analysis has done much more harm to progressives than it's done to Republicans.

But is it untrue?
Yeah, it's untrue. Because for most people who are not liberals, it's a range. It's not a binary choice. You have a minority of people on the right who are excited by racists, and those people I would call bigots. You have a much larger number of Trump supporters who find a lot of that stuff distasteful, but it's not disqualifying to them. They don't like those comments. They think they are inartful and bad. But to them, as hateful as those comments are, they're not disqualifying given their own economic needs and concerns. And liberals refusing to see a difference seem to think half the country is in a position it's not in. We're not in touch with reality. Look, it makes me sad that somebody says, "I don't hate you. I just don't like you enough to vote differently." But that's different than someone saying, "Actually, I do hate you."

I agree that it's different. But one is the worst thing, and the other thing is just really bad. You know?
Fine, but still...you have to deal with the country you live in. If you write off all the Trump voters and say all of them are part of the white-nationalist movement, and if Trump goes and starts attacking these dreamers, who will be standing with you to protect the dreamers? There are veterans who voted for Trump who, if Trump tries to take civil liberties away from American Muslims, will be marching with you in their uniforms, saying, "That's not America." We need to wake up to the fact that, as disappointed as we are in some of the Trump voters, we shouldn't be disgusted with the vast majority of them. There's a small percentage of them that are horrible. It's sad that the rest of Trump supporters are willing to put up with them, but that doesn't make [all Trump voters] irredeemable.
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But Uncle Joe, though! Would Uncle Joe Biden have pulled it out?
Biden would have been more competitive. But let me just tell you this, and I know it's gonna make you sad about your country: I've never seen a celebrity lose. Reagan, Schwarzenegger, Jessie Ventura, weak-ass Sonny Bono! Any celebrity that I've seen as a Republican or an Independent has always won! Biden would have been more competitive, but I think we have to start realizing: You know what? Celebrities are gonna win stuff. I mean, Clay Aiken didn't win his race, but I don't think Clay Aiken really counts on the same level yet. Most of the time, celebrities win.

I said from Day One that Trump could win, because of his celebrity. I got laughed at, a lot. I agree with Van that it was a big factor.

Much more at the link. Van made me wish I had CNN, so I could watch his special The Messy Truth.

Van Jones is the most thoughtful voice I've heard in the post election evaluations. I wish he'd run for DNC Chair, he would be my first choice.