Van Jones was on CNN the night Donald Trump won the election. When he told CNN that America had experienced “white-lash,” many resonated with his statement. So when he came on stage at the Women’s March on Washington with a sign for #LOVEARMY, he received a very warm welcome.
He began his speech with his feelings of saying goodbye to President Barack Obama and the sadness that came with it
“I just want you to know, yesterday was a hard day and when I saw the president flying away in that helicopter, I felt like something beautiful was dying. I felt that something we had all worked for, that we had all given our hopes and dreams to, was dying and yet with every breakdown, a breakthrough is possible,” he started.”Today, because of you some beautiful breakthrough is being reborn in America. Something beautiful is being reborn right here and right now.”
He delved in to the Love Army and how people actually hated on the love army because they think it makes them feel weak.
He laughed and said “If love is weak in your life, that sounds like a personal problem. You need to get off Tinder and get off Grindr and get some real love, because real love is the strongest stuff in the universe.”
He then began to explain the Love Army movement: “The Love Army and this movement is built on that mama bear love. That mama bear loves those cubs and that mama bear’s not going to let you mess with those cubs. This movement is not going to let you mess with the Muslims, this movement is not going to let you mess with the Dreamers. President Trump, we are not going to let you mess with women, we are not going to let you mess with the earth, we are not going to let you mess with black lives matter. This movement is based on that kind of love and let me say something. When you have a movement based on that kind of love, you can talk to people on both sides of the aisle.”
“We love the conservatives enough to tell them that they have to better conservatives then this. You have to be better conservatives then this. Real conservatives love the constitution. We have a president who seems to be an authoritarian. Real conservatives stand up for and believe in clean government. We have a president who seems to commited to a kleptocracy. Real conservatives are patriotic. We have a president who doesn’t seem strong for America, he seems weak for Russia. Conservatives, do better than this. Stand up to Trump as conservatives. And be better conservatives than this. We love you enough to tell you that.”
He went on to say:
“And we also love you enough to say liberals and progressives, we got to be better liberals and better progressives. We do. I am tired of hearing us say love trumps hate but sometimes sound more hateful than trump. I am tired of us and I have been guilty of it, putting down all the red state voters, and saying that they are all stupid and all uneducated, we have to stop that. Just because somebody made a bad vote doesn’t make then a bad person and it’s not going to make us bad people either. I am not going to let a bad vote have us become bad people. We are going to fight for them anyhow. We are going to fight for that dignity anyhow.”
“We will fight against them on the bigotry but we are going to fight for their justice and their dignity as well. This movement has the opportunity to stand up for the underdogs in the red states and the blue states. To stand up for the Muslims, and the Dreamers and the Black folks but also to stand up for coal miners who are going to be thrown under the bus by Donald Trump. We are going to stand up for them. All those rust belt workers, who he is not messing with but he’s about to mess over, we are going to stand up for them and we have to have a position that’s clear. When it gets harder to love, lets love harder. When it get’s harder to love, let’s love harder.”
“I saw that movement that came in this town yesterday. They had red hats on, they were proud of their accomplishment and they thought that they had taken America back. What they never counted on were the million women in pink hats that are going to take America forward.”
