David Weigel's piece at the Washington Independent is sympathetic to these arguments. He argues that the right's defeat of Jones represents "a crucial and possibly educational victory for the wing of the conservative and libertarian movement that has tried, without much success, to paint environmental activists like Jones as anti-capitalist radicals less interested in the health of the planet than in a well-disguised radical agenda."
Weigel makes it sound as if defeating Jones was a monumental challenge; and it would have been without the work of Glenn Beck, Jim Hoft and a number of others who have hammered away at Obama's Marxist green-jobs czar. (The mainstream press just won't report on a Marxist-Truther adviser to the president who attacks Republicans as assholes. Nope, that's just not news. The real enemies are the conservatives.)
But few episodes in recent months are roiling the left as much as Jones' ouster. A really interesting piece is at Jack & Jill Politics, "When Will This White House Learn You Cannot Negotiate With Terrorists?" The author, Baratunde Thurston, suggests that he's been away from politics for personal and professional reasons, and in returning to the polarizing debates he sees a country that's "clearly lost its damn mind":
I turned on one cable station to hear people demanding President Obama prove he’s an American citizen, an insane movement led by an Israeli citizen. I switched channels to see another group screeching in fear that Obama’s health care proposal would institute death panels to kill grandma. On yet another station, Glenn Beck accuses this president of having a deep-seated hatred for half of himself. Flip again to find parents removing their children from school because they don’t want their kids exposed to Obama’s socialist indoctrination. And yesterday, Green Jobs Czar Van Jones resigned after extreme pressure from right wing groups and extreme tepidness from the White House that hired him to do his very important work.Thurston continues:
Too often, this White House has sent the signal that it seeks common ground and conciliation with parties interested in its total destruction. From my point of view, negotiating with ignorance, fear, hate and irrationality is insane. For example, when a major Republican figure in the health care negotiations spreads the death panel lie (Grassley), you see him for what he is, realize you’re dealing with a group of psychopaths, and reset the objectives. “Oh, so that’s how it’s gonna be? Cool. Good to know what we’re dealing with. Thanks for your time. We won’t be needing your services anymore. We’re taking our ball and playing somewhere else.” Negotiations require trust and trust assumes that all parties are not completely batshit crazy.Right.
I realize I’m lumping a variety of “opposition” camps together: birthers, deathers, those who accuse the president of racism and those who accuse him of socialism. I’m grouping them because to me they all come from the same place. They’re engaging in a form of terrorism. They are using psychological violence (and occasionally the threat of real violence) to pursue a political objective, and in so doing, inflicting harm upon non-combatants.
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the movies, it’s that “The United States of America does not negotiate with terrorists.” Yet this White House is willing to let these psychological terrorists set the terms of the debate and negotiate from their insane positions. One group of people is trying to talk about co-pays. The other thinks the president is a secret Kenyan. One group of people sees the creation of domestic, sustainable jobs as a cornerstone of the 21st century economy. The other thinks the president is going to murder your grandmother. This is not legitimate political discourse and to make decisions acknowledging terms so far apart in their reality is just plain stupid.
It's been said many times now, but leftists really don't like freewheeling democratic debate. When they lose control of the message, when their program of "hope and change" is revealed for the radical counterculturalism that it is, they attack and smear their opponents as political terrorists.
Just the thought of that meme is pretty disgusting. It hasn't even been ten years since 9/11 and the true meaning of Islamic jihad's bloodthirsty fanaticism has now been obscured and forgotten. Now it's regular people, taking to the streets to express anger at our tin-eared president, who're branded as "enemy combatants." (One more reason folks are getting pissed at the Democrats in power.)
Thurston goes on to argue that Van Jones was one of the good guys. "A really, really good guy." According to Thurston, Jones used his education and "passion" to combat police brutality and "wasteful incarceration." Jones fought to build communities of "hope" in response to "climate crisis." Jones had a vision for action, etc. He was a savior in the Hope-and-Change mold. Yet, the administration failed him:
This White House, this administration and this president failed Van, failed its supporters and failed to honor the efforts of millions that got them into office in the first place. What’s the point of having power if you don’t use it? When will this White House realize that nothing it does will ever be acceptable to the loud-mouthed, ignorant minority? When will it learn that you cannot negotiate with terrorists??You know, we see this kind of talk time and time again from folks on the contemporary left. There is a strain of disbelief that turns to anger when Democratic-leftists are confronted by the fact that Middle America is rejecting their agenda. It's been building for some time. And it's ugly. When the tea parties started building steam folks like Janeane Garofalo attacked concerned citizens as racist "teabaggers." For months the left-wing blogs and their media enablers have been slurring the grassroots protests as "Astroturfed." And this meme continues to hold sway among the radicals despite overwhelming documentation that the truly staged demonstrations are those sponsored by Organizing for America and its SEIU thugs and AARP frontrow seatwarmers.
And as we've seen this week, the GOP's rank-and-file are being attacked as unhinged "crazies" mounting a political program known as "Operation Monkeyshit."
So, with Van Jones' downfall the left is alleging that conservatives are "political terrorists."
What is clearly missing among folks like Baratunde and the mainstream press is the uncomfortable truth that Van Jones is in fact not a nice guy. He was self-described revolutionary communist up until a few years ago; he signed on to the 9/11 Truth movement by his own volition; he's attacked American foreign policy as "imperialist" and the utlimate source of global human rights opppression; he's slurred Republicans as "assholes"; he's was arrested in 1992 as a violent agitator during the Los Angeles riots; he's alleged that "white polluters" have destroyed inner-city communities; and he produced a violent anti-Iraq-war CD compilation album narrated by Mumia Abu Jamal, the infamous Black Panther thug who was convicted in 1981 for murdering a Philadelphia police officer.
BabalĂș blog has posted the video of Jones arguing that "only 'suburban white kids' shoot up schools" (referring to the Columbine Massacre); and the post concludes with this:
But the Dems still love this guy and shame on us they say for criticizing this Man, who also happens to be on Times top 100 with the Jonas Brothers, ....Yeah, I'll say.
So do you think that the MSM has reported all of this? Try ... NOPE! Oh, and don't expect to hear anything about this guy on the leftist blogs either....
What sickens me is that these liberal pudwackers have the nerve to criticize Beck, yet this wanker gets a pass. Oy vay!
Of course, when some of the nominees of Republican presidents were shot down, it was just justice in action.
ReplyDeleteIt's no wonder President Obama dumped the "War on Terror" name: everyone and his liberal brother is using the word "terrorist" to label their political opponents.
In 3½ years, they'll get their chance to snipe at Republican appointees.
If the liberals had any brains they'd admit that the appointment of Van Jones was a mistake and move on.
ReplyDeleteI read today at NRO that when Clinton threw Lani Guinier under the bus he explicitly disavowed her views. This shielded him from becoming associated with them, so provided a measure of protection. The most he could be accused of was not vetting her properly.
By refusing to do likwise with Jones, Obama and his sycophants on the left tie themselves to Van Jones and his odious ideology. This is politically stupid as well as morally indefensible.
If you think these lefty goober-cheeses are unhinged now, just wait until after next weekend.
ReplyDeleteI bet they are going to be positively apoplectic over what is going to be happening in D.C. next weekend.
I wonder how the SCM is going to cover it, assuming they cover it at all?
-Dave
I was reading the comments in the politico blog on the attack ont he czars.
ReplyDeleteThe progressives are now attacking Obama as spineless and caving into repubs.
These guys still think it is the republican party and they are turning on even their "holy" one.
Lets just hope it keeps up.
Excellent post. It really is incredibly bizarre that Obama and his ilk are so terrified and blindsided by legitimate democratic political discourse. I've never known anybody to get so bug-eyed and quivery at the sight of opposition.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate, they'd better get used to it, because Americans are QUICKLY jumping ship. And they know it. The truth of the matter is that Obama, for his innumerable flaws, is still more intelligent than all of the Kos and HuffPost folks put together. He knows that once America finds out you've appointed a hate-filled, racist communist to a key position in the White House, the jig is up-- you kinda have to issue a mea culpa and try to move on. It speaks to the depths of their lunacy that his extreme left followers can't even set aside their hatred and disgust for America to let Obama engage in a little face-saving.
We win big in 2010.
This post has been linked for the HOT5 Daily 9/7/2009, at The Unreligious Right
ReplyDeleteWhat they are angry at is that we are on to them and their real program. The people caught on too soon while there was still time to stop it.
ReplyDeleteIf they want to govern as extreme leftists they should run on exactly what they really plan to do. They know they'd never win.
Yet Van Jones defeated himself. An excellent case study in self inflicted resignations.
ReplyDeleteThis is payback and it is a b!tch. Hoist by their own petard - heh!
ReplyDelete