Van Jones: Only a 'Love Army' Will Conquer Trump (Rolling Stone)

[Miles Archer]

Van Jones: Only a 'Love Army' Will Conquer Trump



http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/features/van-jones-only-a-love-army-will-conquer-trump-w454026

Van Jones has had some quotable moments in his side gig with CNN recently – telling former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski he was "being a horrible person" on election night, for instance.

But beyond the soundbites, Jones has a clear-eyed vision for how America can survive Trump's presidency: To confront and constrain the incoming administration, he says progressives must move beyond their anger and disbelief, and band together in a what he calls a Love Army – with hearts open enough to embrace not only the vulnerable Americans targeted by Trump and Co., but also the rural voters that were "duped" into voting for him.

It's little mystery why Jones, executive director of the Dream Corps, has emerged as a liberal hero of late. The Yale-trained lawyer from Tennessee rose to leadership in the radically diverse activist scene of late-Nineties Oakland, before embracing the environmental movement and leaping to D.C. to become President Obama's green jobs czar. Ousted after a flurry of old-school red-baiting by then-wild-eyed Glenn Beck, Jones regrouped with an assist from Prince – yup, Prince – and ultimately found a perch in mainstream media.

At CNN, Jones has towered as a voice of progressive reason – a liberal rock in a televised storm of Don Lemons and Jeffrey Lords. He gave millions of election-night viewers a one-word phrase for understanding the outcome: "white-lash." During the campaign, Jones also distinguished himself by listening to Trump voters in places like rural Pennsylvania, and fighting against blue-state snobbery that paints too many Trump backers with a cartoonist's brush.