Pragmatism is unfashionable.
“Queer Eye” “breakout” star Jonathan Van Ness waded into political analysis on Wednesday with this reaction to Tuesday’s primary results: “Luckily a lot to extreme right people won yesterday, meaning that if we can come up w center left candidates we can take back the house & senate, not to mention many state legislatures. It is so important for the left to not go too left or we are done for.”
That plunged Van Ness into a heated debate against progressives who want the Democrats to move to the fringe. In a string of subsequent tweets, he defended himself well, arguing that “being able to compromise is what’s missing from both sides of the American political situation.” Van Ness is from Quincy, Ill., located just across the Mississippi River from Missouri, and at one point told a detractor, “I’m just born and raised in Trump country and I know what it takes to calm that type of person and it’s not this.”
Not all republicans are racist. Just like not all democrars are evil, we have to stop demonizing eachother. Unless you’re actually racist then you suck, Trump is Racist – not all his voters are necessarily we gotta remember we are all in this together.
— Jonathan Van Ness (@jvn) August 15, 2018
Also if you’re upset at a tweet I made leave gurl bai! Being able to compromise is what’s missing from both sides of the American political situation & the sooner we all get to a place of mutual understanding the sooner we will get out of this mess.
— Jonathan Van Ness (@jvn) August 15, 2018
Im not left punching – I’m just born and raised in Trump country and I know what it takes to calm that type of person and it’s not this.
— Jonathan Van Ness (@jvn) August 15, 2018
Put simply: he’s a progressive who actually wants to win, and believes that will require Democrats to understand their constituents and nominate centrists in some races. It’s not a controversial approach. But these days, it’s more than enough to generate outrage on the Left, and another example of the pressure Democrats face to demand ideological purity.
In a video posted to Twitter, Van Ness elaborated. “I decided to tweet political things today and you know that can go one of two ways,” he said. “Left people are not necessarily inherently evil and right people are not necessarily inherently evil and our ability to notice gray area and to notice what compromise means and how much compromise has led us to where we are is important.”
“We have to be able to not demonize the Right,” Van Ness insisted.
And that’s pretty cool, although it wasn’t with a lot of people on Twitter.
Unlike other celebrities (see: Mark Duplass), Van Ness at least owned his argument, and has yet to release anything resembling a groveling apology. “If you’re upset at a tweet I made leave gurl bai!” still appears to be his official position.
