, the green color economy and rebuild the dream. Van jones is also a social entrepreneur. He founded the social justice accelerator, the dream core, and has led numerous social and Environmental Enterprises including the Ella Baker Center for human rights, color of change and green for all. Among his many honors, he has been named one of best companies 12 most Creative Minds on earth. Also times 100 most influential people. Van jones has made his mission to challenge voters and viewers to stand in one anothers shoes and disagree constructively. In his new book, beyond the messy truth, he encourages all of us to set fire to our old ways of thinking about politics and to come together where the pain is greatest. Please join me in welcoming van jones. [applause] hello miami book fair. [applause] well, its such an honor to be here, i hear this is like the 8h book fair or Something Like that. Im glad i got in before the hundreds. Look, im going to talk for a shorter period of time because i really want to get to the questions. I am very concerned about where we are as a country, and if we dont change direction, we will end up where we are headed. Where we are headed is very bad. Democracies can fail. In fact, democracies usually fail. Ethe fact that we have had a democratic republic here for 200 plus years is a miracle. We should take it more seriously than we do. So, i wrote a book called beyond the messy truth, but the subtitle is more important than the title. The title is how we came apart and how we come together. Its because i get a chance to work at cnn that ive beenha able to be in conversation with both sides for a while. Ive also been to red states and blue states. This past year ive been to west virginia. Ive been to the South Central los angeles. Ive been to the arizona mexico border. Ive been to flint michigan. And, what i can report back to you is that there is common pain across this country. Every place i go its the same story. Addiction, a broken criminal justice and court system, bad jobs are no jobs, common pain. But no common purpose yet. Common pain should lead to common purpose and common purpose should lead to some common projects and common projects should lead to common sense, but thats not whats happening. And, i am very concerned that we now have a political dynamics that has set in where both sides can score points just attacking the other side without any concern for how wern might actually solve a problem, get something done, make the country work and this does not come from a position of centrism that im not a centrist. Im a strong liberal, proud, progressive, i also say im on the left side of pluto. You cant find any issue that im not on the left side appeared i was working on transgender liberation back in 96 and 97. So, im not new to these fights but i was working on misconduct and accountability back in the 90s. I have a foundation that helped close five abusive prisons. Ive been on the issue of all of these issues before we even had the phrase black lives matter. When somebody who is as strong a progressive as i i am is saying hold on a second, i think its Worth Holding on a second. Let me tell you how i think we got into the situation. Let me tell you how i think we might be able to move et forward. Both Political Parties, i think this is now less controversial than it mightve been, but i would say over the past 30 years, both Political Parties sucked. They just sucked and its just, thats a technical term. But what do i mean, i mean both Political Parties signed on to ideas that turned out to be just ruinous, bad ideas for ordinary people. It was both Political Parties that said we should sign on to these trade deals like nafta and they would be great for everybody. It was great for a lot of peopl people, but the beneficiaries of globalization are diffuse and ungrateful. Its not like you go to walmart and say hooray for nafta, but the losers are concentrated in the industrial heartland and they are pissed and they are rightfully pissed because we overpromised how we were going to fix the downside. They never showed up. Both parties signed off on that. Both parties signed off on the regula deregulating wall street. Both parties in 1990 said you know whats really wrong with america, whats really hurting the country, bankers are oppressed. The bankers are struggling under this oppressive weight. Serena free the bankers. What could possibly go wrong. It was in ten years you had a crash that wiped out trillions of dollars and millions of home. Both parties signed off on that. Both parties signed off on the idea that we should build prisons from coasttocoast. Both parties are mass incarceration parties, three strikes youre out, to strike throughout the spirit, youre just out, both parties. They said it would make black communities better and it destroyed families and neighborhoods. But both parties were for that. Both parties said we should get involved in these oversea wars. Now its been 15 years and we still cant figure out how to get out of them. So, when you have a ba bipartisan elite failure at the top of bothti parties, at some point you are going to have a bipartisan set of rebellion in both parties. So what you saw in the democratic party, use our black lives matter, you saw the Bernie Sanders movement, and in the Republican Party you saw the Tea Party Movement which then hurtled into this trump thing. And so, i think the wrong rebel one, antitrust, but the rebellion itself is justified. The discontent, the frustration frustrations, the sense that the big people up there dont care about me, that is justified. And the fact that both Political Parties seem to have learned so little from this train crash, listen, when you have 47 of democrats voting for bernie, i mean Bernie Sanders had the same political stand that dennis had and he got 47 of the vote. That shouldve been a huge signal to the democratiche party that there was a massive level of discontent inside our party and yet it was brushed under the rug until even the present date. So, what i think now having been around the country . Ive seen two things i want to share with you. In the book, i really try to get into the mistake i think that democrats have made and its a complicated argument. I think the democrats have a lot to be proud of in that we drew a circle, certainly in 2016 that included people who have been left out and crapped on and mistreated and disrespected for too long. The democrats used to include people they keep in the back of the bus, but this time we included people and we were proud about it so the lgbtq struggle, even in 2012, no less than president barack obama was a little hesitant in 2012 to speak out for marriage equality. Remember, it was joe biden who got out there and said we are for it and then obama was like oh joe. And so then obama kind of came out in 2012 kind of sheep this sheepishly and said for me personally im for it, but my. [inaudible] thats just five years ago. Now, if youre not for transgender liberation, we look at you weird so, im proud of that. And probably. One reason i dont like democrats calling ourselves the resistance, i think trump is the resistance. I think we are winning and i think thats why these people are freaking out. So, im proud of that and im proud of the fact that we embrace american muslims without apology. Its really frustrating to me, talk about it in the book why are we so tough on american muslims . This is one of the best communities that we have. They have the lowest crime rate, they have the lowest divorce l rate, they have the highest educational, one of the highest Educational Attainment rates for women. Think about it. Every muslim you know, theyve got a job, an advanced degree, and or a business. Look at the actual muslims. They are amazing people. Of a muslim family moved in next door to you, you would be thrilled because the chances of your kids getting in trouble just one way down. Ubway down so you haveju this Amazing Group and then we miss treat them and we have to because of terrorism, and i dont mean to be rude but statistically the majority of terrorists in the United States are not muslim so i dont understand. I just dont understand. [applause] see what i did there, anyway so i dont get it. The immigrant community, not just the dreamers, youve got 11 Million People that the country would literally fall apart. If we say fine you win, we would know what to do. The tech sector would fall apart, construction would fall apart, agricultural and fall apart, 11 Million People and the democrats embrace those folks. The black lives matter cause, criminal justice. The first woman ever to be president. Thats all stuff to be proud of. I dont want anybody to back away from it. We raise the bar and we should leave it there until every buddy else catches up, and, elsa think its fair to say thatat we may have drawn the circle a little too small this time. There may have been people who were also hurting, we did a good job with the traditionally disenfranchised, but there are some newly disenfranchised scared, hurt folks who are whit white, who are often male, who are workingclass, and whose pain didnt register with the Democratic Coalition the same way this time. And, for those people, its tough to admit this, but if the only time Hillary Clinton has a white guy in the ad is donald trump, that may not signal as a welcoming party. I think that for our stride, we just need to draw the circle as big as Bobby Kennedy drew it. Drive as big as Shirley Chisholm drew it. Just draw the circle we used tuse the way we used to drive to everybody. On the other side, i think you have a real problem. Lets not forget the Republican Party is the party of lincoln. This party was founded in an slavery Pro Liberty Party and is now in danger of becoming the party of steve bannon. Now, you know, there is nothing inherent in conservatism that requires this hostile stand toward people of color, toward the new rising majority. In fact, if im honest, half of thet black people should be voting for republicans. Oh my god, how can you say that . Because ive met black people. And if you actually have a conversation with african americans, we are the most churchgoing part of the democraticg coalition. The two strongest parts of the black community and the black church and hiphop, right. Hiphop, nobody is rapping about being on welfare. Theyre rapping about getting rich. Thats republican, theyre rapping about stuff. Thats republican so, and then, you know, the people who go to church multiple times a week so this is weird why wouldnt an aspiring, we have a strong middle class that nobody ever talks about, why arent half of us voting for republican . Because the Republican Party, if you listen to the talk radio gu guy, if you watch that tv station that they have , im not going to mention it, but i will say this, when you go home for thanksgiving, if you havend a relative that only watches one station, you can at least. Out that if your news source, your primary source of information is actually named after a free predatory mammal that cant be trusted to guard the hen house or anything else, you just may want to diversify. Thats ongoing to say. So, when you listen to the story on the predator station, its almost always negative against africanamericans. You think all black people are lazy criminals and you cant vote for a party that doesnt respect you. I dont care what they put on the website pronounce your what they say. When that contempt bleeds through, you cant support it. There is nothing inherent in conservatism one that would require this level of hostility toward immigrants, towards muslims, towards africanamericans, and so i think you have a great party in danger now of being taken over by whites premises, and i think thats a concern for everyone. Ive been very proud, i never thought i would say a kind word about george w. Bush, but hats off to him. He came out and said i dont likeus this off. I wish more of them would do what he is doing. I dont like the stuff. Thats important for the Republican Party. So, then the question is how can we come back together . I want to be very clear. I am not a pollyanna person. Ive been on the front lines of some of the toughest struggles for my entire adult life. Ive been to a lot of funerals and a lot of young people in caskets and older gray hair people sitting in pews which is the opposite of how its supposed to be. Ive seen a lot of bad state ballot measures pass and hurt a lot of people. I am a frontline guy that wound up on tv. Im not a coup by our guy. There are some stuff we have to fight about. The good thing about cydemocracy, you dont have to agree. Dictatorship, everyone has to agree were in a fight about healthcare and womens rights and a lot of stuff, but you cant only fight and still have a country. You cant only fight and still have a country. If we keep jumping up and down on the floorboard of society, at some point you have a breakdown, a real breakdown, and you dont want to live in that in neither do i so in addition to the battleground where we should show up with as much principle and dignity as possible, thish also is massive Common Ground that we never even discussed. You have an addiction crisis that is tearing this country apart and i have stuff in my book, we could fix a bunch of it tomorrow on a bipartisan basis. Use a republican, i say democrat, you dont change one thing and we could stick a big part of this addiction crisis tomorrow. Lets not forget, my close friend died of the same opioids that are tearing up rule white america. Thisp is across the board and i think if we start dealing more intelligently with the Opioid Crisis which would deal more intelligently with the narcotics crisis which has torn up the black community and people have said. [inaudible] we can completely reset on how we deal with addiction, but we are not doing it. The criminal Justice System is a complete catastrophe so much so that republican governors, no one on the mcat excite even knows this. You have republican governors that have been shocked by how dysfunctional and expensive and awful our prisons are and have been closing prisons. Rick perry closed prisons and brought the crime rate down. The georgia governor brought it down by closing prisons. John kasich in ohio, republican governor, big criminal Justice Reform her. Nikki haley, same thing. Black lives matter and republican governors have more in common on prisons than ive ever sat down to talk about. Common ground, but, well talk about it. We want to g argue about it through tweets all the time, and then, i also, nobody thanks that their kid or the grandkid or their niece or nephew is actually being trained for the job of tomorrow. Nobody. I dont care public school, private school, vouchers, nott vouchers, im not talking the education reform, im talking about curriculum of being delivered. Nobody thanks these kidsur in a world of drones in Artificial Intelligence and going to mars and smart screens and robots are ready. Their kids are ready, my kids are ready. Thats an emergency and were not even talking about it. There is Common Ground beyond the battleground. My basic proposal in this book is very simple. From nine to noon, lets just fight. Every day, lets just fight, and then, from noon until one can we get something done, just one thing, anything. Just anything that might help a Single Person in america just for an hour. And then after words from ftone to dinner, well just fight some more. Is that a crazy idea . Can we do one thing to help one person together . Because if we dont, we are going to end up where we are headed. Ill close with this. The kids are doing better than the grown people. This is a shame. The kids are doing way better. The grown people are now flunking kindergarten. Remember kindergarten, listen, share, you know, like there is not a Single Person that i can identify in public life that would do wellin kindergarten right now because we just fight all the time. Inobody listens, nobody shares the listener what we make the kids do. This is the genius of america. We force these kids, every morning, and most goals, we make him stand up and they say the pledge of allegiance and the end with one nation nindividuaindivisible with liberty and justice for all. This is brainwash. This is brilliant brainwash because liberty really is more of aty conservative concept. Liberty really says look, government, get out of my way, let me get out here and make my money and be myself and dont you boss me government, i want my liberty. Justice really leans more on the left side. Yeah its all good, we all want free markets and stuff, but can you have a Great Society if you only deal with what the corporation can make money off of or do you also need governance. What about the big groups . They might run over the little groups. What about the week groups that might get run over by the strong groups. What about justice . If you only have justice, if the liberals were able to get out of here, go to mars, the problem with justice and no concern for individual liberty , you wind up with overregulation, over taxation, you wind up with totalitarianism. You wind up with government dominated society which is a nightmare. At the same time, on the other hand, if you only go with liberty, me myself and i, leave me alone, ill do whatever i want and that we can tell meod anything, i dont care about justice, you wind up with a different type of iftyranny. Corporate attorney in that survival of the fittest, the fittest wind up with all the power and you got corporations that own your media, run your government, and thats a nightmare. Justice