Van Jones and Jim Traficant...Don't Mix!!!!

Two things happened to today which spells trouble for the Democratic Party as it currently exists. Van Jones quit as the Green Jobs Czar, and Jim Traficant had a welcome home party attended by 1200 very Traficant loyalists. What does a black man from Oakland, California, and Jim Traficant have in common? Nothing, and that is exactly my point.

Let’s start with Van Jones. For those of you who watch NBC, CBS, ABC, and CNN…you probably don’t know that Van Jones was the radical extremist among us. If you want to know what a President’s policies are or will be, look at the people he surrounds himself with for advice. Van Jones is a black activist whose past is stunningly radical. He compared George Bush to a crack-head; he stated overtly that he was a communist; he stated all the wealth should be given to Indians because America took their lands; he blindly supported a black cop killer; and signed a letter of support for the 9/11 Truth group which claims Bush was complicit in the 9/11 attacks. Fox News, and particularly Glen Beck, took Mr. Jones on uncovering a plethora of videos in which Mr. Jones espoused his interesting political views. It culminated in his resignation over Labor Day weekend. Mr. Jones’ radical political ideology was deliberately not covered by the major networks until such time as he resigned. That is another issue. Score one for Fox News.

I will leave it to you to take about two minutes to google Mr. Jones and see for yourself how bad he is. But if any of you believe Barack Obama appointed him to that job and did not know of his radical views, you live in la-la land. Obama knew exactly what this guy represented, and is consistent with his associations with Bill Ayers and Reverend Wright, among others. CAN YOU SEE A PATTERN??? Do you want to know what Barack Obama thinks? LOOK AT THE PEOPLE HE SURROUNDS HIMSELF WITH.

Jim Traficant, our former Congressman, was released from jail this past week. His supporters held a welcome celebration at Mr. Anthony’s. The place was sold out at twenty bucks a head. The local politicos and the Vindicator have panned Traficant’s return. Yet 1,200 people showed up to welcome him back to the area. It was iffy whether he would actually attend the event, but he did. He looked exactly the same, and sounded exactly the same. His message of don’t trust the government, reckless government spending, useless low paying job creation, putting troops on the border to guard the country, and to stand up and be heard, resonated with the crowd like I have never seen before.

How could this man, and a 1,200 decidedly blue collar audience there listening to him, belong to the same political party that elected a President who appointed someone like Van Jones to smother our economy, and has left the drafting of legislation to the likes of Nancy Pelosi? It doesn’t add up. That spells trouble that starts with T and that rhymes with P and that stands for pool.

The folks that attended the Traficant event would normally be hard core Democrats. But the party has left them. These folks are not the Van Jones type, or the Nancy Pelosi/Harry Reid type, or the Harvard graduate intellectual elite type that is Barack Obama. These a hard working Americans who are tired of being afraid of their government, and sense that something is happening in the country that will ultimately exclude them, leaving them out in the cold. These folks are conservative, blue dog Democrats with nowhere to go. When Traficant mentioned Fox News, there was wild and spontaneous applause. I wish Andrea Mitchell and Matt Lauer could have heard it.

Under Barack Obama, the Democratic Party is leaving two of its key constituencies behind, seniors resulting from Medicare cuts, and former union members out of work due bad trade policies and the cap and trade global warming initiatives. It can’t win without them.

Republicans shouldn’t rejoice either. There is not guaranty these folks will go running to the GOP with open arms. The Republican Party has not exactly developed policies to assist these folks. Maybe the seniors will give the Republicans a look because it was a Republican that initiated a prescription drug benefit as flawed as it is. But what about those out of work union folks? It just ain’t gonna happen for the GOP.

One of two things might happen. Traficant said tonight that the movement to take America back will erupt from northeast Ohio, from Youngstown, Ohio. That means that maybe he will run for office again in 2010, or maybe 2012. The press and local political gurus shouldn’t be too quick to dismiss him.

But I think the possibility exists for Traficant to form a third political party, one catering to blue dog Democrats with no place to go in the San Francisco dominated modern Democratic party, along with disenfranchised folks over the age of 55. It would be a strong movement with major populist appeal, and would attract conservatives from the Democratic Party AND conservatives from the Republican Party. My son calls it “Traficant Conservatism.” He wouldn’t necessarily have to be a candidate, but there are many around that might fill the bill with his help.

The American public is fed up with the new political elitists who view the electorate with disdain and their seats in Washington as belonging to them. Van Jones is gone, and Traficant is back. And the American public is peeved. A lot of good politics will be coming our way.