Mr. Van Jones, President Obama's "Green Jobs Czar," is the perfectly useful political foil for the Obama Administration. "Foil" means to obscure or confuse (to leave a false trail or scent) so as to evade or spoil pursuers. It also means a person or thing that makes another seem better by contrast ("The serious man was an able foil to the comic").
Mr. Jones recently resigned from his five month job as the so-called Green Jobs Czar (a highly symbolic do-nothing non-cabinet position) purportedly because he was found out to be a "communist" by conservatives on the Internet. According to Wikipedia, Mr. Jones was:
involved with STORM Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement, a group explicitly committed to revolutionary Marxist politics[15] whose points of unity were revolutionary democracy, revolutionary feminism, revolutionary internationalism, the central role of the working class, urban Marxism, and Third World Communism.[16] While associated with STORM, Jones actively began protesting police brutality. Mr. Jones purportedly authored the document at the following link for the STORM organization:
http://web.archive.org/web/20070719020533/http:/leftspot.com/blog/files/docs/STORMSummation.pdf
The Obama Administration could not have been so dumb as to not know of Mr. Jones' "commie" credentials. To the contrary, they have found such controversial credentials useful. Van Jones has what politicians call symbolic "political capital" that can gain earn interest many times over.
By hiring him the Obama Administration ingratiates themselves with Leftist extremists who voted for Obama.
And by hiring Mr. Jones they can antagonize and stereotype those on the political Right as McCarthyite anti-communist crazies and "wingnuts" who would smear Mr. Jones' reputation. The hiring of Mr. Van Jones was yet another political diversionary and provocation tactic by President Obama's Machiavellian-like political advisor David Axelrod.
Even better, Mr. Jones has chocolate-colored skin ("black"), so those on the political Left can accuse those on the political Right, who were behind outing Mr. Jones, as "racists."
Additionally, Mr. Axelrod is using Mr. Jones' timely resignation to control and manipulate the media and thus the public conversation over the Labor Day weekend. By juxtaposing the ouster of Mr. Van Jones by so-called "racist smear tactics" on the political Right, President Obama can be portrayed to be a paragon of reason who is exercising leadership instead of extremism, inclusiveness over racism, compassion over hate.
Media commentators such as Glenn Beck on TV and Michael Savage on radio only serve to whip up hysteria of those on the political right with revelations about how Mr. Jones was "discovered" on the Internet to be a "commie."
Michael Savage is a well-known liberal who just portrays himself as a radical conservative talk radio show host. For all we know, Mr. Beck may be the same sort of huckster out to make a buck selling so-called "hate" talk to duped conservatives. But many conservatives fall for their pitch.
If I were conservatives I would tune out all the highly contrived media events on Van Jones and enjoy a Labor Day back yard barbecue.
But I must ask you what kind of political administration is it that would use such diabolical tactics with its "citizens"? A few quotes by the 15th century political thinker Niccolo Machiavelli might provide some lessons to conservatives:
"One who deceives will always find those who allow themselves to be deceived."
"Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions."
"Princes and governments are far more dangerous than other (so-called extremist) elements within society."
"It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver."
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