Let's cut out Grandma's food

I wrote last Thursday about how the GOP is definitely not listening to me (they're listening to the Koch brothers and the Tea Party) and the Dems are too busy listening to the GOP to pay any attention to me. I lamented what to do about it. Alas, my comment box was not overflowing with responses (I did get one emailed to me).

A segment on All Things Considered on NPR offers a solution. Make enough progressive noise to attract the attention of the Dems. I can't do it by myself and I don't have the kind of money the Koch brothers have. That leaves…

Van Jones has begun the Tea Party of the progressives, called the American Dream Movement. Jones used to work for Obama as special advisor for green jobs -- until the harping from the GOP made his job difficult (they don't want jobs of any color?). After a couple more short assignments outside government he took a year to travel the country to talk to people.

The Root interviewed Jones a month ago. Here are excerpts of what he said.

If a family has budget problems, you don't say, "We need to save money, so let's cut out Grandma's food." You would cut back on nonessentials and also ask Junior to get a paper route to increase revenues.

Rolling back the Bush tax cuts on the superwealthy should be a no-brainer.

What drives me nuts is this idea that the smart, hardworking people on Wall Street should not be taxed because we don't want to discourage them from being so industrious.

Another thing you might want to [focus on] is winding these wars down responsibly. We're spending $3.3 billion every week in Afghanistan and Iraq.

When was the last time we saw people with progressive views rallying, marching and going to town hall meetings and speaking with passion? I'm not mad that the so-called conservatives are so vocal. I'm just concerned that people with other views are so quiet.

The entire Washington, D.C., establishment is off track. But the discussion in Washington, D.C., will change when the discussion in the country begins to change.

And excerpts from the NPR piece:

Sixty to 70 percent of Americans agree that jobs are more important than this debt-ceiling debacle. Sixty-seven percent of Americans agree that we should raise taxes on the wealthiest in a crisis like this. We aren't being represented.

Everything the Tea Party says about America's government is how terrible it is. You can't take a wrecking ball, paint it red, white and blue, call yourself a patriot, and then smash down every institution that made America great.

We're not even focused on the smart ways to get Americans working because we're chasing the Tea Party down the street.

Here is the website Jones has started. I signed up. Alas, all that has done so far is ask me to spread the word (as in hand over your email addresses, I'll let you do that yourselves). We'll see if I now get deluged by email.