On Thursday, CNN political commentator Van Jones praised President Joe Biden’s address on the coronavirus pandemic as a calling to a “deeper patriotism.”
Jones said, “I just think that he is the guy we need right now. When he talked about I’m going to heal the soul of America, a lot of people thought that was some corny stuff. But to see the president of the United States standing up there, he didn’t say you need me. He said I need you. I need you. I mean, my God, that is —isn’t that it? We need each other. And then the inclusivity. It’s the little touches. He didn’t just say the states. He said and the tribes and the territories. He talked about rural America. He’s got money in there for rural Americans. He talked about corporations coming together. And he stuck up for the Asian-American community that’s been living a horror for the entire time. But there was nothing about it where he was taking shots at anybody. He didn’t blame the other party for not being there. He told the country that we can get this done. And it was just — the tone was different. Tangibly it’s different in terms of who he’s helping. But this is exactly what we need right now.”
He added, “I think it’s a deeper kind of patriotism. There’s this kind of cheaper patriotism that separates the American people from America’s government and says, I love America’s people, I hate America’s government. He said the government is us. It’s a democracy. The government is us. And he’s calling for a whole of government and whole of society approach. When he’s bragging on those competitors, ‘I’ve got two corporations that are competing, and they’re helping us. We’re working together,’ those are the kind of touches that kind of just suggest we can start helping each other.”
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