indepth’s posterous

Twitter's Ongoing Role in Creating a More Responsive Government

Twitter was remarkably effective when it was used to organize the long shot political campaign resulting in the election of Barack Obama.  Today, with the announced resignation of Van Jones, Twitter has shown its power once again.  This time, its utility was focused on ridding the President's inner circle of a self-proclaimed communist, a black nationalist racist (with an arrest record) and, someone seriously lacking in wisdom, good judgment and other qualities essential for a leader to be trusted.

Of the many things that earned for Van Jones an expedited exit from his highly visible, official role in the federal government, the news media seemed to be most upset the fact that he exercised his Constitutional right to petition government to redress grievances.  I say this was, by far, Mr. Jones least problematic public act.  Yet, it became the final straw, check that, actually, it was his excuse for signing a so-called "Truther Petition" claiming he didn't read it carefully, was the dam breaker. It was a profoundly stupid admission even if true. And coming from a Yale trained lawyer, no less. (Of course, G.W.Bush also graduated from Yale, so enough said about that being an Ivy league diploma mill.) That Jones lacked the wisdom and good judgment to even consider signing an online petition, sent the signal that Jones is not someone who can be counted on to use good judgment, especially when it comes to spending even a dollar of taxpayers' money - much less entrusted to earmark a budget of $30 billion. 

Jone's legacy will be that during his abbreviated stint in public service he managed to create exactly one new, green job. (Check that, a "light green" job at best.)  That single job goes to whomever Valerie Jarrett blesses to become his replacement.

Twitter has, once again, proven to be a very precious and powerful tool for change.