It usually takes the conservative alternative media to point out just how radical some of these characters are. Consider one Obama team member who was forced to resign this weekend. His radicalism had long been known, but a new revelation of just how far off the planet he is finally pushed him over the edge.
I refer to Van Jones who had been the President's "Green Jobs Czar." The alternative media had been revealing some of the bizarre comments he had made about environmental issues. But it was the recent outing of his weird conspiracy theories that resulted in his resignation. According to Jones, the terrorist attacks of 9/11 were in fact partly caused by the US Government.
But he has been pushing an "I-hate-America" line for ages. Indeed, as a self-professed Marxist, he has not had very high views of the country he was called upon to serve. And some of his views on environmental issues have been just as strange as his views on the twin towers attack.
One of his more bizarre claims was that white folk were trying to poison black people. As he said in one public address, "The white polluters and the white environmentalists are essentially steering poison into the people of color communities because they don't have a racial justice frame."
Thus he managed to turn environmental concerns into an issue of race: "We need environmentalism that is relevant to people of color." This has led one commentator to label Jones a "professional community activist," who has "rocketed to fame by melding racial grievance and claims of economic injustice with the increasingly faddish orthodoxy of environmentalism. His glibness and comfort in front of a camera expose a sound-bite unseriousness, an inner-city hustle with a green patina."
Indeed, his blend of Marxism and radical environmentalism was a matter of serious concern. As Harry R. Jackson, Jr. noted, "Jones' unofficial, personal mission seemed to be to recast the 'extreme green' movement as a 'people's revolution' instead of the elitist movement that it is. In his book, The Green Collar Economy, he admits that it is 'not yet fashionable' to be concerned about social justice and equity in the radical green movement. Nonetheless, he seeks to cast a vision that mixes Marxism with green consciousness. As he preaches a new green gospel, he distorts his movement's elitist roots by attempting to shroud his agenda in civil rights imagery."
His radical roots would not have been unknown to Obama. Indeed, as Carol Platt Liebau writes, they both have moved in the same ideological atmosphere: "The political trouble the President has brought on himself is obvious. Should any journalist choose to navigate the web of the President's and Jones' associations, the links could raise uncomfortable questions for Obama. Jones was suggested for his post by Chuck Collins of the Progressive Policy Institute, writing in the socialist-founded newspaper 'In These Times.' Collins (who helped found the socialist New Party, whose endorsement the President sought and received in his 1996 state senate race), also serves as Director of the Tax Program for Business for Shared Prosperity, an affiliate of left-wing think tank Demos. At Demos, Jones is a member of the board – and the organization's web site notes that Obama was a founding member, part of the group's 'core'."
She continues, "Taken together, all this suggests that Jones was hardly some far-flung appointee who was unknown to the President and hired to keep the far left on the Obama team. Rather, he and the President have apparently traveled in overlapping ideological circles. If widely known, these facts will do nothing to quell the rising public disquiet about Obama's big government activism and skyrocketing deficits. (Nor is Jones' rhetoric, including the charge that 'The white polluters and the white environmentalists are essentially steering poison into the people of colors' communities,' likely to burnish Obama's credentials as a racial 'healer.')"
Such a radical should never have been appointed: "But Jones could prove to be a liability not just for the President but also for the environmental movement as a whole. For some time, critics ranging from Rush Limbaugh to Czech Republic President Vaclav Klaus have warned that some are using environmentalism as a pretext for imposing totalitarian, big-government control on the economy. Until now, they have been roundly ridiculed. By denouncing 'suicidal gray capitalism' and then characterizing a 'green economy' as 'the engine for transforming the whole society,' Van Jones has bestowed renewed credibility on these concerns. And in doing so, he's forcing the many well-intentioned activists in the environmental movement to dispel the suspicion that, perhaps, their motives are not always as pure – or as wholesome – as the public has been led to believe."
Of course the really worrying thing is that Jones was not a one-off case. There are numerous radicals that Obama has surrounded himself with. This one got caught out and paid the price. But how many more are busily working away, seeking to foist their revolutionary agendas on the American people?