Former professor Jones forms left-wing Tea Party

Former White House environmental official Van Jones, who served a one-year appointment as a visiting professor at the University last year, recently announced the creation of the “American Dream Movement,” an initiative designed to serve as the left wing’s answer to the Tea Party.

During the 2010-11 academic year, Jones served as a distinguished visiting fellow in both the Center for African American Studies and the Wilson School’s Program in Science, Technology and Environmental Policy.

Jones’ movement launched earlier this month with a New York City rally co-sponsored by liberal advocacy group MoveOn.org. The main theme of the movement, according to its website, is to “fight back” against politicians who, the group says, continue to slash workers’ rights, cut funding to vital services, give tax breaks to the rich and create an environment where Americans can’t “find jobs, afford to go to college, retire with dignity and secure a future for their children and their communities.”

“We think we can do what the Tea Party did,” Jones said of the movement in an interview with political blog The Fix. “They stepped forward under a common banner and everyone took them seriously.”

Jones, who served under President Barack Obama, resigned from his White House position in 2009 after it was revealed that he had signed a petition which said that the Bush Administration “may indeed have deliberately allowed 9/11 to happen, perhaps as a pretext for war.”

Jones has a history of social activism, of which the “American Dream Movement” is only the latest installment, as well as minor controversies; at an event in 2009, for example, Jones was taped delivering remarks in which he called Republicans in Congress “assholes.” The University’s announcement of his appointment as a visiting professor sparked backlash from some members of the University community, who raised questions about the circumstances that led to his departure from the White House and past controversies.

However, students who worked with Jones said they had a positive experience and that they supported Jones' latest endeavor.

“The class I took with Van was one of, if not the best class I took at Princeton,” Miyuki Miyagi ’12 said in an email. Miyagi was one of the students who took Jones' spring seminar, titled "AAS 337/ENV 337: Liberation Ecology: Politics and Policy in the Creation of a Just, Green Economy," which explored the ways in which the United States could create a green economy and the political challenges that would occur along the way.

Miyagi noted that Van had told his students to “watch out for” the launch of his new movement, which she said she was excited about. “I think the theory behind it is dead on, and the need for it is intense,” she explained. “If our country has any chance at recovering the spirit of hope and change that Obama inspired before his election — a spirit upon which I believe the future of our nation depends — this movement is it.”

Peter Florence ’12, who also took Jones' seminar, echoed Miyagi’s sentiments.

“Regardless of your politics, there’s no doubt that Van has done a pretty spot-on dissection of what happened with Hope and Change and with the Tea Party,” he said in an email. “The challenge for him will be ensuring that his vision is carefully brought together.”

Both students also expressed their support of Jones' teaching methods, and said they appreciated how the course featured a hands-on approach rather than just an explanatory one.

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“Van is one of the most inspiring speakers in politics today, not to mention a mastermind political entrepreneur and a savvy Washington insider,” Miyagi said.

She noted that the politics department could improve by featuring more courses with professors who had “real-world experience and wisdom.” For example, she said, Jones asked students for help in coming up with and developing future projects, a request many of them enjoyed.

“Between the energy of 20-odd all-star students and Van’s own dynamism, the class was an incredible and infectious experience,” Florence said. “It was a class on true get-your-hands-dirty politics, rather than pure theory ... Van knows how to motivate and how to craft tangible narratives from abstract social problems, so of course we all picked up more than a thing or two.”

Jones’ movement is not the first attempt at forming a left-wing Tea Party. Last October, a group calling itself “One Nation” held a rally on the National Mall, but died out after the 2010 elections.

Jones did not respond to a request for comment.