# "Green Jobs Czar" Van Jones Resigns **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 6, 2009, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100 "2009-09-06T22:19:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100/61 "2009-09-08T00:31:46Z")
> [@Magiver](#): > > They are code words for people who hire communists to carry out their agenda. When Obama was called a socialist there was a great gnashing of teeth about the label. Looks accurate to me. It’s also accurate that our democratic republic is a balance of socialist and capitalistic policies and has been for generations. It’s great to question how far we want to go in a certain direction. It’s foolish to use SOCIALIST as some lame intended insult or the suggestion of evil. > [@](#): > > Being a Communist isn’t a minor flaw, it’s a political philosophy that has ruined every nation where it was tried. Nobody wants to have their standard of living dictated to them until nothing is left. I don’t understand why a President of the United States would hire someone with no industrial background to act as an advisor on jobs. If Jones represents the type of people Obama has surrounded himself with then we are all being driven down the highway to hell in Trabants. THE SKY IS FALLING!! ---
**Author:** ![Starving\_Artist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/aeb1de/32.png) [@Starving\_Artist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Starving_Artist)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100/62 "2009-09-08T00:35:03Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Not singular. There’s this one other guy I know who resisted. I’m sure there are at least half a dozen others out there. Oh, yeah, I almost forgot! I used to hear rumors about some of those guys years ago. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Frank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Frank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frank)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100/63 "2009-09-08T00:40:22Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > It’s foolish to use SOCIALIST as some lame intended insult or the suggestion of evil. Well, the word “liberal” no longer serves the purpose; it is no longer scary enough. They’re just running “socialist” up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100/64 "2009-09-08T00:48:50Z")
> [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > Oh, yeah, I almost forgot! I used to hear rumors about some of those guys years ago. Thanks. Hey, its not like I wanted to! They just told me it was the only way to be sure I wouldn’t get my head stuffed full of rightarded horseshit. So far its working. Now, maybe thats not the real reason, maybe its just that I’m too smart. (I have reason to be suspicious of that premise…) But I’m not taking any chances! Look what happened to Dennis Miller! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100/65 "2009-09-08T00:55:46Z")
> [@Frank](#): > > Well, the word “liberal” no longer serves the purpose; it is no longer scary enough. They’re just running “socialist” up the flagpole and see if anyone salutes. We’re long past that stage-- they’ve been saluting all across this blessed land for some time now. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100/66 "2009-09-08T11:08:01Z")
> [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > We hold these truths to be self-evident, **that all men are created equal** , that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed So what you’re saying is that one of the core principles of what America was founded on is exactly the same as one of the, if not the, core principles of Communism? Glad we’ve got that sorted then. The rest is all down to interpretation. Pursuit of happiness is clearly within Communist principles as communists believe that through Communism we shall all be provided for and hence happy. Liberty? Everyone has their own idea about that. But as I tried to say and someone else put better than me, the principles of the common man between the late eighteenth century and the early twentieth century in the US were quite different from now. Much like in, say, the UK they used to think that anyone should be allowed to vote. Later women weren’t allowed to. Those were central viewpoints of the time and clearly incompatible with modern views. Anybody that thinks their western country is living up to the principles of 2-300 hundred years ago is clearly deluding themselves. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100/67 "2009-09-08T11:26:01Z")
As if modern communists must subscribe to every sentence ever uttered by Marx. Jeez-o-peets, people! The 1950s called, they want their paranoia back. ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 12:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100/68 "2009-09-08T12:18:24Z")
> [@magellan01](#): > > I also don’t think an avowed communist should be part of a U.S. President’s administration, as it conflicts with the founding of this country. And if he is going to be invited in, the administration has to accept any flak they rightfully get. How on earth does being a communist conflict with the founding of this country? ---
**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100/69 "2009-09-08T13:38:02Z")
Sam, I wonder sometimes why you think you know better than we who live in the USA what American law, tradition, & values are about. > [@Sam\_Stone](#): > > …Communism, which holds that individual rights do not exist, and that the ultimate goal of society is to eliminate the differences between rich and poor, _even through violence, if necessary_. As if that’s so much more obnoxious than the War for American Independence, where we ran your Tory ancestors out of the country with violence. > [@](#): > > According to Marx and Engels, Communism has ten critical elements: Right there, I deny your major. Not all communists are Marxists. Even Marx was not a Marxist. > [@](#): > > At least seven of [the following] are completely antithetical to what the United States stands for, and would be considered unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. Wait, Sam. The United States is not the ideological project you want it to be. I guess you want it to be the bright & shining beacon of libertarian utopia that you can feel inspired by in boring ol’ Canadia. But we have to live here. And “what the United States stands for” must take a back seat to the actual interests & well-being of Americans. We are not here for you, Sam. We are not abstractions. > [@](#): > > 1. Abolition of all property rights. > 2. Abolition of all rights of inheritance. > 3. Confiscation of all property of ‘rebels’. > 4. Centralization of all credit in the hands of the state. > 5. Centralization of the means of communication and transportation in the hands of the state. > 6. State ownership of the means of production. > 7. Establishment of industrial armies under control of a central government. > 8. A highly progressive income tax. > 9. Free education for all (but combining education with industrial production). > 10. Abolition of the difference between town and country by enforcing an ‘equitable’ distribution of population across the land. The ones in blue are ones that are not only not inconsistent with our constitution, but which in fact we have attempted. #5 is weird. We do have “freedom of the press” but we also have publicly administered highways & airwaves. So I’m not sure whether that’s unconstitutional or something we’re doing anyway. I don’t know what #3 & #4 mean. #2 isn’t really impossible in this country. We have plenty of good Americans who would love an estate tax of 100%. #6 is profoundly unlikely, but not strictly unconstitutional as far as I know, so long as land & industry are either purchased by the state or forfeited as a penalty for crimes. #1, you’re right, that’s probably unconstitutional. Or at least unacceptable. Now, if it were _most_ property rights? That would be OK, even on the right side of the aisle. We’re not really all conscientious libertarians. The redistribution of population (#10) isn’t even done by most Leninist regimes, so that’s an odd qualification. Clearly, if that’s a trait of “Communists”, there are no “Communists” except the Khmer Rouge. Alex Jones doesn’t advocate that, therefore he is not a “Communist” either. He must have been just young & confused. > [@Starving\_Artist](#): > > One can only imagine MSM coverage if a Republican czar-in-waiting had been discovered to have been a KKK member or Nazi sympathizer and had referred to Democrats as assholes. The MSM would have led with it every day for weeks! Being an young intellectual who calls himself a communist–or a fascist for that matter–is not the same as joining a racist gang & engaging in domestic terrorism. There is a huge difference between a young intellectual calling himself a communist–which is ordinary & innocuous, in this country–and someone actively joining the KKK. (Not that I care much if someone did join the KKK briefly.) ---
**Author:** ![DoctorJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doctorj/32/2904_2.png) [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)\ **Post date:** [September 8, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100/70 "2009-09-08T14:13:57Z")
> [@](#): > > Obama note to self: When your political enemies label you a radical and a socialist, don’t hire even former communists/radicals into your administration. You’re supposed to be the smart guy. If you’re going to cut out everybody who flirted with communism or “radicalism” (such as it was in the 90s) in college or as a young adult, you’re going to cut out a crapload of very smart, politically-active people who have since wised up. The Truther petition bothers me, but I’m also willing to believe that someone like Jones has dozens of petitions shoved at him every week, and he’s signed a few without reading them all that well. What did it matter, unless he planned to be a government appointee? (Oops.) I suppose Glenn Beck has been up front about the fact that Jones co-founded Color of Change, the organization that has been pushing for advertisers to drop Beck’s show since his ridiculous remarks that Obama is a racist. I’m sure Beck would want to make it clear that he has a personal reason to oppose Jones. (Note: he may very well have said something about it. I’m sure not going to watch to find out.) And if Republicans don’t want to be called assholes, they need to stop being such assholes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/green-jobs-czar-van-jones-resigns/509100.md?page=3)