Mike Riggs
Reason Magazine
4/10/2012
Last we heard from Van Jones, President Obama’s former Green Jobs czar, he was trashing “so-called libertarians” for hating brown folks, gays, lesbians, immigrants and people with piercings. Called on it during an appearance on RT’s The Alyona Show (where—full disclosure!—Reason’s myriad personalities regularly opine), Jones modified his statement:
“Well, well listen– but that’s, that’s American politics. Ya know, I mean, you guys should know that. American politics people– we mix it up. I’ve never backed down from a fight over ideas. I’m tired … of a certain section of people acting like they have having a monopoly on patriotism. They don’t. … And so now I’m saying, ‘two can play that game if you want to.’”
“That statement I made was overly broad. I should have said the ‘so-called libertarians who identify themselves with this sort of ultra-right wing camp.’ Because there are libertarians that don’t have those views.”
“I’ve met libertarians who say that Dr. Martin Luther King, Dr. King, is somebody they can’t support because someone should have the right to exclude people in this country from being able to go into a restaurant, or go into a hotel, or go into a place of business solely based on the color of their skin.”
Don’t you just love it when a person who trades in identity politics actually uses the word? Jones still doesn’t appear to know what a libertarian is, or what a libertarian believes, only that some of them believe some of the things Jones believes, and the rest hate Martin Luther King Jr. For a rebuttal, I turn this post over to Reason’s own Ron Bailey…
The article continues, with video, at Reason.com
VAN JONES: I’ve never apologized or stood down for any of the stuff I did when I was younger, because you should have the right in this country to be young, to think wild thoughts and embrace utopian ideas and all that kind of stuff. I want other people who are young and want to challenge orthodoxies to feel that you can do that and you can also move on with your life. The people who criticize me, I’ve done more to help this country in the past two months, fighting to cut mortgages for people who are underwater, fighting to get student-loan relief for people, I’ve done more for my country in the past two months than a lot of these people have done in their whole lives.
And we urge readers to visit Marooned in Marin’s post, Holding Anti-US Rally On 9/12/01, Supporting Cop Killer…What The SF Chronicle Ignored On “Mr Dreamy,” Van Jones It is a most comprehensive article on Van Jones.
