It took only 15 minutes of listening to Van Jones’ remarks at the “Take Back The American Dream Conference” to realize that this was just another lame attempt to energize the Democratic Party’s ever diminishing and demoralized base before the 2012 election.
As rambling and vacuous as his remarks were, I did manage to take away one approximate quote: “The White House is talking different, because we’re walking different.”
In the first place, the White House is NOT TALKING DIFFERENT in regard to substantive policy changes. A careful reading of the Budget Control Act of 2011 and the American Jobs Act indicates that there are “no teeth” in President Obama’s proposal to tax the wealthy (The Buffet Rule). This is simply rhetoric committed to paper (a recommendation, not a proposed law) which is intended to fire up the progressive or Democratic Party base. As a matter of fact, neither Tim Geithner nor Jack Lew were willing to clarify the specific details of the so-called Buffet Rule when asked to do so by the press.
Secondly, I’ve read almost no comment (except in business press) regarding the “sweeping overhaul” of the federal unemployment benefits program which was put forth in the American Jobs Act. In short, it is modeled after President Clinton’s welfare-to-work reform–you will soon “have to work for” federal long-term UE benefits.
And by the way, Mr. Jones, you and all the other Democratic Party elites need to hear this from at least one "Independent Voter" and former DFA and Democratic Party activist:
“No longer will empty promises, together with the usual threats of a catestrophic takeover by right-wing extremist bogeymen (Rick Perry, the Tea Party, the Koch Brothers,etc.) keep this liberal towing the line for the corporatist wing of the Democratic Party.” To borrow a right-wing phrase that would surely appeal to the conservative sensibilities of the Washington Establishment Democrats: “That dog don’t hunt.”