The Liberals’ Tea Party

[robertpaulsen]

The Liberals’ Tea Party

By Michelle Goldberg | The Daily Beast – Mon, Aug 15, 2011

Van Jones is sitting in an office in Washington, D.C., talking about John McCain when, quite unexpectedly, he starts crying.

He’d been discussing the shock of some in the Obama administration at the furious right-wing backlash that greeted their arrival in Washington, a backlash that hit Jones particularly hard. “We thought John McCain was the representative of the Republican Party,” he says. “John McCain, who we didn’t like and didn’t agree with, but who, at the end of the day, put country first.”

Jones recalled an angry McCain town hall in Minneapolis where attendees voiced their mounting contempt for Obama. At one point, an older women had declared that Obama was an untrustworthy “Arab.” Shaking his head, McCain took the microphone from her and replied, “No, ma’am. He’s a decent family man.” That moment moved Jones. “He stood up, two weeks before the election,” he says. “Down in the polls. Needing his base. That’s a big deal.” His voice cracks as he continues. “And it was the people in the audience that disrespect this country. And they’ve taken over this party. And they’re trying to take over America.” He bangs on the table. “And we can’t let them!”

Tears start running down his face and his voice catches in a sob. It could be an act for dramatic emphasis, but it sure doesn’t seem like it. “I’m telling you, this country is better than this,” he says. “This is the low point. Hang on. Help is on the way.”

By “help,” Jones means his new American Dream Movement, which he envisions as a left-wing alternative to the Tea Party. Launched at a July 23 event in New York City that was part rally, party dance party, the American Dream Movement aims to restore the fight for economic justice to the center of progressive politics. On Aug. 9, the movement put out its crowd-sourced “Contract for the American Dream,” a 10-point economic manifesto that called for new investments in education and infrastructure; higher taxes for corporations, Wall Street and the wealthy; and curbs on lobbyists. The next day, it was published as a full-page ad in The New York Times. Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois will soon introduce the Emergency Jobs to Restore the American Dream Act, legislation based on the document.

more...

http://news.yahoo.com/real-liberal-tea-party-220100979.html

[TygrBright]

1. "You may say that I'm a dreamer... But I'm not the only one." Best wishes, Van. n/t

[Useless in FL]

3. +1000 (n/t)

[Skittles]

2. oh please

Van had to be one NAIVE guy to think that repukes in general had any sense of honor. Did he miss the Clinton witch hunting and the bush years???

[yurbud]

4. how long would someone have to have had their head in the sand to think that McCain

still represented the Republican Party?

Did Jones miss the GOP's decade long hunt for Clinton's penis, or the Bush years?

I can't believe people in the Obama administration were that stupid.

The only excuse is that because they agree with the GOP on so many issues, they wrongly assumed they would get GOP cooperation.