A Wake-up Call from Van Jones
CNN analyst Van Jones appears to recognize a political head-on collision before it happens.
He’s now warning leftist viewers to wake up to the realities of what can occur with Trump’s next run for the White House in 2020, according to his appearance on a panel in the aftermath of the president’s SOTU speech.
One of the most worrisome moments for Van Jones was the president’s pitch for improved education for African-Americans. “You may not like it,” Van Jones cautioned his fellow panelists, “but he mentioned HBCU’s (historically black colleges and universities), have been struggling for a long time, a bunch of them have gone under, he threw a lifeline to them in real life in his budget.”
This “lifeline” struck fear in Van Jones because he recognized it was the start of politically consequential policies now being enacted by the Trump administration.
While his CNN colleagues snickered at Trump’s “showmanship,” Van Jones focused on what was the most notable aspect of putting African-Americans front-and-center at the SOTU. President Trump is pushing back against the Democratic narrative of portraying him and his supporters as “white supremacists.”
The timing could not have been better. “WAKE UP, folks,” Van Jones tweeted his comments in a video, “The Iowa caucus was a debacle, followed by a SOTU address laying out Trump’s strategy to win.”
In an act of pure showmanship, President Trump matched up real faces to his policies that addressed real inequities in American life. And the nation was watching.
He introduced a single mother, and her adolescent daughter, whose “future was put further out of reach when Pennsylvania governor vetoed legislation to expand school choice.” His administration extended opportunities for school choice and crucial scholarships of which the mother and daughter would be the direct beneficiaries.
Van Jones doesn’t need reminding that the quality of academic life in urban government schools is nothing short of a national disgrace.
Does anyone have to ask who suffers most?
Surprisingly the Democrats refrained from hissing at the president’s call to offer economically deprived children -- many of whom languish in horrible public schools -- to have more such opportunities to attend charter, private and parochial schools. Of course, they would have to cross the union line to do it.
Most of President Trump’s appeals were aimed directly at forgotten Americans, many of whom suffer most in the nation’s prison system. Undoubtedly Jones watched the $5 million Trump campaign ad-buy at the Super Bowl heralding President Trump’s commutation of a black woman’s life sentence for a drug offense.
“The conservative movement in this country,” Jones admitted, “is now the leader on this issue of (criminal) reform.” This is “unfortunate,” he couldn’t help adding. It may be “unfortunate,” but Van Jones most likely shocked his former boss, Barack Obama, when he agreed to work closely with Jared Kushner, and other Trump officials, to pass legislation for sweeping criminal-justice reform.
President Trump was not above recruiting his former nemesis. Jones helped draft policies to reduce mass incarceration and high recidivism rates by increasing the pool of inmates eligible to participate in early-release programs. This is one of numerous policy changes.
Ardent leftists are criticizing Jones for bucking political convention and crossing over the “woke” line. The new Jones writes about bipartisanship and (even) waxes poetic about the necessity to work together: “I’ve never seen a bird fly with only a left wing.”
This sort of advocacy particularly incensed Aaron Rupar of the left-leaning news outlet Splinter. “What are you doing?” Rupar asked when spotting a photo of Van Jones at CPAC (Conservative Political Action Conference). He joined the conservative panel to further advocate for justice-prison reform.
Others were less charitable with their comments. “Sellout,” was a one-word comment thrown at Van Jones by leftist group, Bros4America. The brothers took the liberty of adding the word to a photograph of Van Jones. He appears smiling next to Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, and Kim Kardashian (another prison-reform advocate) at the White House.
Leftists wasted no time in launching attacks against Van Jones, never missing an opportunity to vilify his bipartisan efforts. Most refuse to heed Jones' sound advice “to step outside of our bubble.” The wake-up call isn’t on the leftist agenda.
Yet Jones understood what Trump supporters were hearing on the night of the SOTU. The president had successfully demonstrated a sincere and persistent effort to better the lives of Americans. While some leftists openly hope for a recession to stop Trump, the president’s achievements remain their worst nightmare. Those achievements, which were aimed at “forgotten” Americans, included: establishing “opportunity zone” tax incentives to funnel investments into low-income areas, passing lower corporate tax rates to fuel nationwide commerce, delivering on record low jobless rates (5.9 percent for black Americans). turning back regulatory guidelines stifling business, etc.
Freaking out over every move made by the president, Van Jones warns, will not get Democrats back on track, or allow them to regain the White House.
It’s fortunate for Trump supporters that many leftists continue to suffer from TDS and refuse to heed Jones’ sound advice.