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I hope everybody's getting smarter.

Van Jones

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Van Jones
Age: 56
Born: 1968
Born: September 20
Civil Rights Advocate
Environmentalist
Human Rights Activist
Lawyer
Motivational Speaker
Pundit
Jackson
Tennessee
Anthony Kapel Jones
Getting
Hope
Smarter
Everybody

More quotes by Van Jones

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Playing the villain gets you higher ratings on reality TV and saying outrageous stuff on Twitter gets you more followers.
Van Jones
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Ninth generation American, ma'am, and I'm the first one in my family born with all my rights. I'm a ninth generation American. And so we have not escaped because I went to Yale all the problems of this country.
Van Jones
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The government built the grid to favor one industry over others. But I don't hear any conservatives screaming about that. Folks don't understand that the elite economic interests that are holding them down are also feeding them a bunch of lies.
Van Jones
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People forget: solar panels don't put themselves up. Wind turbines don't manufacture themselves. Businesses don't retrofit themselves to waste less energy and water, nor do homes weatherize themselves.
Van Jones
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I think we were naive during the first two years of the [Barack] Obama Administration because the Republicans didn't fight us on this point during the 2008 Presidential Election. Obama and McCain both ran on a clean energy platform. But now, uncontested lies have eroded hard-won public understanding. So, we have to go back and make the case again.
Van Jones
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We should not allow the fundamentalists and the bigots to take over and speak for the great faiths any more than we should let them take over and speak for the great nation.
Van Jones
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I consider myself to be sort of a progressive Afrofuturist that is deeply committed to social justice.
Van Jones
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Donald Trump's promised the moon. Now he has power. He's going to fail to deliver. He's not going to be able to bring a bunch of coal jobs back and a bunch of factory jobs back in this global economy. Period. Because you can't. It's not going to happen.
Van Jones
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Americans need to see people who are honestly trying to learn from each other, even as we make our own points powerfully and fight for our own values and policies.
Van Jones
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In countries where there are real civil wars, people go through a lot, and we should be willing to go through a lot to help them.
Van Jones
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We're going to bake this planet, and be a curse to all species, including our own, if we don't find an alternative to carbon-based fuel. That's the #1 problem.
Van Jones
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We are talking about capital-intensive enterprises, so market certainty is the key. Investors and entrepreneurs have to know that there will be a guaranteed U.S. renewable energy market in which they can compete. Otherwise, they will create the next generation of green companies and green jobs in Asia, not here.
Van Jones
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People are going to have to do a big reset. But this is a big wake-up call to the entire establishment, including the Democrats. And not just because of the failure.
Van Jones
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I've never launched any initiative or campaign that people thought was a slam dunk.
Van Jones
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Listen, here's reality. It is completely unfair and absolutely necessary that people who have been oppressed and marginalized have to lead everybody. That is MLK, that is Dolores Huerta, that is Fannie Lou Hamer, that is Ella Jo Baker, that is Nelson Mandela. You walk down the line.
Van Jones
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We have the water, food and other industries which are also experiencing some redirection.
Van Jones
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To green our country, regular people will have to put on hard hats and work boots, roll up their sleeves - and get to work.
Van Jones
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To make sure we aren't training people for jobs that don't exist, the government should provide companies with loans or loan guarantees. And the government should also directly employ people to do things like coastal restoration, land restoration, reforestation and similar programs that absorb carbon and protect America's beauty.
Van Jones
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You don't get lower ratings playing the villain on reality TV.
Van Jones
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I have become the poster child for calling all the Trump people racists, when, in fact, I don't think they're all racists, but they tolerated racism. And that's a problem.
Van Jones