The first 10 minutes is amazing truth that needs to be heard.
Van Jones, a very liberal man, is directly criticizing (or issuing a call to wake up and change) many liberal posters on this board.
But, interestingly, right at the 10 minute point, he starts to drift into the very thing that he is warning his side against, when he starts speaking to conservatives.
For example, he starts talking about how conservatives have let their anti-liberalism put them in a position of choosing anti-liberalism over defending the country against the influence of a foreign power. Here, he is talking about the Russia conspiracy theory. It is not that conservatives won't defend their country against a foreign actor...they obviously would, and it is surprising that he doesn't see that after that first 10 minutes. Rather, it is that conservatives don't believe the narrative, and they believe that Hillary's campaign basically created that myth out of whole cloth, and the media ran with it. They believe that no defense of the country from a foreign influence was needed (especially not more than it was needed against Hillary who was being bought through their foundation, or the Bidens being bought through Hunter), and in fact, the real defense of the country that was needed was against those who would create a false narrative to weaken a duly elected president.
Van Jones goes on to talk about how the conservatives should embrace certain communities.
First, I will note that that "embracing communities" is a liberal way of thinking, whereas conservatives try to "embrace individuals" and "embrace fair policies to all individuals and families, without regard to their communities or groups."
He then talks about conservatives lumping all Muslims into Al-Qaeda, which, of course, conservatives think liberals do, because when a conservative wants a law to stop Al-Qaeda, the liberals accuse conservatives of being anti-Muslim...so it is liberals who do the lumping, not the conservatives. Oh, I'm sure it happens on both sides, but he doesn't see that, which is interesting, since he just warned us against that type of attitude.
I agree with him that blacks and hispanics are actually very conservative in many respects (the whole "church going thing"...although the religious aspect of the GOP is diminishing...family values does not necessarily equal church going, and Van Jones seems to gloss over that). He laments conservative news outlets not embracing black communities...and yet it is interesting that Democrats try to prevent that no matter what. It is Dems who define politics by race, saying, "You ain't black" if you vote Republican. So, the Left is doing its best to keep blacks from being embraced by both parties. Blacks are told by Dems that because they can't change their color, they have to stay Democrat.
Granted, conservatives often fall into that race language trap set for them by the Left. For example, when addressing inner city poor issues or inner city crime issues, conservatives may mistakenly talk about "blacks" (like Dems intentionally talk about blacks). But, conservatives should be talking about "urban poor" or just plain "American urbanites." Blacks in the suburbs and rural areas are not experiencing the same issues that blacks in the urban areas are. And, immigrant blacks aren't experiencing the same issues that American blacks are. That should tell us that the issues are not race issues, but cultural issues. So, why do our politicians want us to use race language when discussing non-race cultural issues? I think that is telling. If solving the problems were the goal, they wouldn't be doing that.
I suspect if I raised these issues with Van Jones, he would engage on them with me. But, the video is only a one way medium.
Great post, though. Van Jones makes a fair attempt at being thoughtful and introspective, something we don't see enough of in politics today. Many here on his political side would not like what he said.
Link: Youtube: Exposing Liberal Hypocrisy and Conservative Close-Mindedness | Van Jones | Big Think