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CNN commentator Van Jones is touring the country to get people to focus on our commonalities as opposed to our differences at a time when politics has fractured the country.

Jones We Rise tour, which kicked off Wednesday and continues until Aug. 19, is stopping at venues from Los Angeles to New York as he hosts conversations with local government and community leaders and artistsabout politics and activism. Wednesdays kickoffevent in Los Angelesfeatured a panel with hip-hop mogul and producer Russell Simmons and actor and rapper Nick Cannon, as well as performances that includedspoken word poetry.

In an interview with HuffPost before the tour launched, Jones said he wants to push people progressives in particular to think beyond partisan divides to work on social justice issues, such as mass incarceration and the drug epidemics.

Part of whats happened is everybody feels a sense of crisis economically, geopolitically but instead of turning to each other, were turning on each other, Jones said.

Since the election, Jones has drawn some criticism from the left for his push to bridge divides with folks on the right, particularly those who voted for Donald Trump. As a proud progressive who worked in the Obama administration and famously dubbed Trumps election a whitelash against changing demographics, Jonescaused some brows to furrowwhen his CNN show,The Messy Truth,which launched in December, had him visiting Trump supporters to listen to their struggles.

Many progressives and people of color in particular have taken issue with the panoply of peopleafter the election, including Jones, who have called for those on the left to have conversations with Trump voters rather than focus solely on supporting marginalized groups, many of which have seen their rights threatenedbythe Trump administration.

Jones maintains that he can do both: Im just as concerned about whats going on in Appalachia as in South-Central Los Angeles. Were concerned about people both parties have let down for decades.

Its a lot easier to say, Screw Trump and anyone who voted for him, he added. But the problem is it doesnt create a job or close a prison.

Jones We Rise tour wont mirror his Messy Truth show, he says, largely because he will be talking mostly with liberal panelists and audience members, since, as he put it, progressives and people of color will be the main people who show up.

Im going to be challenging those folks with stuff Ive seen, to try to get us to open our hearts, Jones said. Its a risk for me, because right now there is real risk as a progressive to raise criticism, because they dont want it to play into Trumps hand somehow.

Sales from the tours tickets ranging from a low of$17 in Las Vegasto a high of$216 in Miami will benefit Jones nonprofit,The Dream Corps.

HuffPost spoke to Jones about the tour and why he thinks people on the left should be joining with those on the right to advance social justice.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Jerritt Clark via Getty Images for Roc Nation

Your We Rise tour wants people to focus on our commonalities as opposed to our differences.At a time ofdeep political division, why do you believe bipartisan efforts are the path forward?

Its about trying to get us back to a place where were talking about solutions and building bridges again.Its scary to me, because Im going out into what feels like a civil war and trying to point out opportunities for hope and progress without being Pollyanna about it.

Ive gotten a chance to go to so many different cities Ive been to West Virginia, to South-Central L.A. Everywhere I go its the same thing: addiction, poverty, a broken criminal justice system, high death rates. Im seeing common pain but no common purpose.

Theres stuff were not going to agree on health care, immigration and everyone knows where I stand on those issues. But there are issues we do agree on, and nobody is doing anything. No one thinks the criminal justice system is doing well, or addiction whether narcotics in black communities or opioids in white communities or that were preparing the next generation of workers.

Were all yelling at each other about whos a snowflake, but theres funeral after funeral of young Americans from overdoses, homicides and even sometimes police shootings.

Youve done some of this kind of bipartisan bridge-building work with your show,The Messy Truth,when you talked to Trump voters about their concerns. How do you respond to the criticism youve gotten over those efforts?

Look, I think Trump is worse than people fear and I think many of the Trump voters are better than people know. The truth is messy. Many of the Trump voters held their nose to vote for Trump, just as many of us held ours to vote for [Hillary] Clinton. My view is we should be tough on Trump and his policies and behaviors, but we should be very curious and open to understanding and finding common ground with Trumps voters.

Im not kumbaya but unless youre saying Screw Trump, youre accused of being kumbaya. Ive been in politics for 30 years. You have to look at reality, and to get things we want to get done, we have to de-inflame some of these tensions.

Jerritt Clark via Getty Images for Roc Nation

You mentioned there are issues people on the left and right tend to agree on. For instance,that mass incarceration is a problem. But even so, arent there still divides on how to solve it, or issues related to it, like police violence?

My organization [The Dream Corps] hasreal legislationmoving right now, theDignity for Incarcerated Women Act, where we think well pick up Republicans on not shackling women in federal prisons when giving birth.

We dont have to agree on everything to agree on some things. On criminal justice, there has been real bipartisan progress.

I think the problem is people are in their own bubbles of outrage, and were not trying to solve problems anymore. If you have a kid in prison or hooked on opioids or who doesnt have a job, a lot of this back and forth is not inspiring. Theres a bunch of people addicted to being righteous and saying Republicans suck. Thats not a hard case to make. The harder case is that there are things we could be doing as progressives to get better outcomes for our community.

You havent been the only one making calls to bridge divides since the election. Everyone from theWomens MarchtoHeinekenhas pushed people to have conversations with folks they disagree with. Butcriticsnote that promoting dialogue makes it seem like its individual opinions that need to change rather than systems or policies.

Thats a false choice. We get in these false binaries: either you work on dialogue and understanding or on systemic change. But you cant work on either unless youre working on both. Try to close a prison without talking to a Republican. You cant do it in any state. Its not dialogue for its own sake: You cant deliver on structural reforms without being in dialogue.

We have to get passed the hazing that youre an Uncle Tom appeaser just because youre trying to close prisons, and in order to do that you have to talk to Republicans. We have to keep our eyes on the prize: the people who are actually suffering.

I think the truth is messy: Im a progressive. Im proud of it. I think our ideas are better, butI dont think our ideas or party is perfect, and I benefit from back and forth with people who disagree with me.

Jerritt Clark via Getty Images for Roc Nation

How does your experience as a black man in America relate to your belief that people should come together despite these deep political divides?

I dont think I can be any more cynical or defeatist than people who were enslaved and lynched and had dogs sicked on them and somehow found a way to be optimistic. I think people have lost all perspective. Its become fashionable to be cynical. Im not going to let Trump change who I am. Im a hope-and-changer in 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020 and 2024, if God lets me stay here.

[Martin Luther King Jr.] was talking about hope and change. Before that you had Ida B. Wells, while people were being lynched, talking about hope and change. This is what we do. This country was a slave state on stolen land, and we had to fight a civil war only to get to apartheid. And Dr. King created a democracy out of apartheid. I stand in that tradition. People with less money and no phones turned an apartheid regime into a democracy against much greater odds than what we face, and they werent cynical.

Im literally bewildered by how fashionable its become to just shoot down any idea or any suggestion that we might be able to get kids out of jail or morgues as Pollyanna, kumbaya stuff. And I reject it.

Come out, sit in a room with me for an hour. If you think Im full of it, come out and tell me to my face. Lets have this conversation.

Jerritt Clark via Getty Images for Roc Nation

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Van Jones Is Touring America To Have 'Messy' Conversations With Liberals - HuffPost