Dear Rebuild The Dream:
After I heard Van Jones interviewed on NPR yesterday (http://www.npr.org/2011/07/31/138867706/former-obama-adviser-brews-a-different-tea-party) I left the following comment on their website. I doubt it's going to get much notice in the middle of the crazy and disturbing flames, but I want to assure you that my intent is serious, so I've contacted you directly.
"I was disappointed to read through this very lengthy list of comments, and see how few people actually wanted to discuss the piece. It was welcome news that somebody wants to start a high profile progressive alliance, but I'm deeply troubled by the past history of the Obama team marshaling and then sidelining progressive energy and resources. I was quite irritated when Jones said: "First of all, let's be clear. The slogan was never yes, he can. The slogan was yes, we can. Too many of us sat down..." I am thinking of the website Change.org, which supposedly polled the American people on what they wanted Obama to do, but actually it was just a social network site to get them to waste time in pursuits as meaningful as farmland. Almost everything that people wanted the most were ignored... the few that were addressed, we were told "forget it." After the election all that stuff was stripped out, and look what the site has become now (a strange mishmash of special pleading, with no overarching progressive agenda whatsoever - http://www.change.org/). The people didn't sit down so much as they were shut down. I want to know - is Jones' new endeavor yet another Obama Trojan Horse invented to destroy what little progressive America is left? I would like to hear Jones discuss this."
After a little further investigation, I was surprised to find Mr. Jones had put forward a proposal on the Huffington Post site (first time I've visited it since the boycott started) back in February. There a generally more left readership responded in a way that mostly ranged from tepid to suspicious, not an auspicious beginning auguring great things for the organization.
If this movement is intended to be a progressive wing of the Democratic party in the way that the Tea Party is a reactionary wing of the Republican party, it would be greatly reassuring to me if there was evidence that it isn't just more of the center right to hard right policies dressed up in kind and gentler rhetoric that Obama has been delivering for the few scant years he's been a public figure. The man who went on bended knee before the myth of Ronald Reagan (http://counterpunch.org/whitney08012011.html) sacked Van Jones, to appease his conservative buddies. Does Jones have nothing but reverence for this man? I would sure like to see him address this, too.
SIncerely,
Matt Love
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Dump Obama in 2012. You know you want to.
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