On May 26^th 2007 Cindy Sheehan announced her resignation from the Democratic Party, which currently controls both Houses of the legislature, in response to last month’s vote to provide another $100 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two days later, she announced she was temporarily suspending her active role in antiwar protest campaigns, in part due to family and health concerns. For those somehow unfamiliar, Sheehan is the mother and American anti-war activist who rose to national prominence when she set up camp near George W. Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas in August 2005 as a protest against the war in Iraq, in which her 24-year-old serviceman son, Casey, was killed while serving in April 2004. The mainstream media, and in many cases the so-called “left” or progressive media, glossed over the profound political implications of the first part of Sheehan’s action, namely her decision to break ties with the Democratic party, preferring to focus on other issues and repercussions related to her decision.

It’s not clear what if anything Sheehan has planned next politically but her decision and the apparent political awakening it reflects is profound, and is an awakening that thousands more Americans will hopefully have soon. Sheehan apparently has come to the understanding, probably accelerated by her extensive dealings with the most prominent of Democratic politicians, that the Democrats as a party are simply another side of the same imperialist, corporate, aristocratic coin Americans have been trying unsuccessfully to redeem at the polls since this country started having elections. In a bitter entry in her diary on the Daily Kos weblog written two days after her open letter and excerpted below (for full entry click here), Sheehan issues a scathing rebuke of both the Democratic and Republican parties. Long the target of attacks from the Right-wing and the Republican party, Sheehan notes in the entry that her open condemnation of the Democrats has led to snubs and attacks from so-called “progressives” within the antiwar protest movement and The Democratic Party.

Sheehan writes, “I have endured a lot of smear and hatred since Casey was killed and especially since I became the so-called "Face" of the American anti-war movement. Especially since I renounced any tie I have remaining with the Democratic Party, I have been further trashed on such "liberal blogs" as the Democratic Underground. Being called an "attention whore" and being told "good riddance" are some of the more milder rebukes.

I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.

The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a "tool" of the Democratic Party.  This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our "two-party" system?

However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the "left" started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of "right or left", but "right and wrong."

I am deemed a radical because I believe that partisan politics should be left to the wayside when hundreds of thousands of people are dying for a war based on lies that is supported by Democrats and Republican alike. It amazes me that people who are sharp on the issues and can zero in like a laser beam on lies, misrepresentations, and political expediency when it comes to one party refuse to recognize it in their own party. Blind party loyalty is dangerous whatever side it occurs on. People of the world look on us Americans as jokes because we allow our political leaders so much murderous latitude and if we don’t find alternatives to this corrupt "two" party system our Representative Republic will die and be replaced with what we are rapidly descending into with nary a check or balance: a fascist corporate wasteland.”

Sheehan then recounts the profound and astounding level of personal sacrifice her anti-war activities have led to in her personal life, before continuing “the most devastating conclusion that I reached this morning, however, was that Casey did indeed die for nothing. His precious lifeblood drained out in a country far away from his family who loves him, killed by his own country which is beholden to and run by a war machine that even controls what we think. I have tried every since he died to make his sacrifice meaningful. Casey died for a country which cares more about who will be the next American Idol than how many people will be killed in the next few months while Democrats and Republicans play politics with human lives. It is so painful to me to know that I bought into this system for so many years and Casey paid the price for that allegiance. I failed my boy and that hurts the most.

Our brave young men and women in Iraq have been abandoned there indefinitely by their cowardly leaders who move them around like pawns on a chessboard of destruction and the people of Iraq have been doomed to death and fates worse than death by people worried more about elections than people. However, in five, ten, or fifteen years, our troops will come limping home in another abject defeat and ten or twenty years from then, our children’s children will be seeing their loved ones die for no reason, because their grandparents also bought into this corrupt system. George Bush will never be impeached because if the Democrats dig too deeply, they may unearth a few skeletons in their own graves and the system will perpetuate itself in perpetuity.”

And so it appears, that Cindy Sheehan’s eyes are truly opening. The concept that the Republicans and Democrats are in fact simply variations of a single party of the ruling elite that smothers the public’s hopes and aspirations for meaningful political and social change is not at all new, but rarely has it become so evident. This is not to say that there are not any members of the Democratic Party who generally work for the best interest of the public and actually try to represent their constituencies, but Congress members like John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Dennis Kucinich, etc are few and far between and even with their apparent progressive yearnings they are ultimately bound by the limitations of in house party politics. 

Unbound by such considerations as trying to win an election, securing campaign contributions, opportunism, and just plain old fashioned corruption, and informed by her very recent dealings with the Democratic Party, Sheehan has come to the conclusion that the Democratic party is simply not an instrument through which a successful campaign to end the war and occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan can be waged. In fact I would contend, as I have in the past, that the Democratic Party is not truly an opposition party to the Republicans but a way to control and channel popular discontent into a form deemed acceptable by the corporate and financial elite who truly run the country.

The Democrats in general seeks to control, direct, and ultimately suppress any public discontent with “the system” and the status quo. When necessary they will push for certain minor changes and progressive gains to allay the public’s frustrations and fears, as those gains will likely just be taken away by the Republicans or other Democrats shortly thereafter. As Sheehan said in an interview on the radio program “Democracy Now!” (WBAI 99.5 in New York)”, the week following her announcements, “If we don’t get a viable third party—or some people say second party; you know, the Democrats and Republicans are so similar, and their pockets are lined by the same people—we are—our representative republic is doomed... we really need an opposition party in this country. But we vote out of our fear. We go and we vote for the lesser of two evils, and we always end up getting somebody evil.”

Despite the mainstream media’s attempts to obscure the issue, the Democratic Party’s capitulation on the recent vote for more Iraq War and Occupation funding with no timeline for withdrawal, was hardly necessary certainly as a matter of principle and even as a matter of practicality or Constitutionality. In fact, as succinctly explained in a recent commentary by the media watchdog group, FAIR, "if the Democrat-controlled Congress wanted to force the Bush administration to accept a bill with a withdrawal timeline, it did NOT have to pass the bill over Bush's veto-it just had to make clear that no Iraq War spending bill without a timeline would be forthcoming. Given that the Constitution requires Congress to approve all spending, Bush needs Congress's approval to continue the war-Congress does not need Bush's approval to end the war".

Democratic control of the legislative branch (Congress, Senate, etc) of government is for the most part due to voter disgust with the current administration, elements of the Republican Party, and disapproval of the Iraq War and Occupation. The sitting President’s approval ratings are the lowest of any president in the history of the country, since such measures have begun being compiled. Who exactly are the Democrats pandering to when they vote to give those who wish to continue and escalate the disastrous and barbaric occupation of Iraq another blank check? Clearly it was not the people who voted them into office.

The Democrats voted to give the continued war and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan more money with no conditions because as a party they SUPPORT the wars and occupations. They SUPPORT the primary objective of such imperialistic adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc which is primarily the control of the globes remaining petroleum resources, war profiteering, and maintenance of a faltering American empire through coercion and militarism. Their primary disagreement with the Republicans in this regard is not the goal, but the best tactics to achieve it. Sure there are certain individuals within the party that do not agree with such measures but as a group the Democrats are full fledged partners in this criminal enterprise, with all of it’s immoral designs and disastrous consequences. 

As American citizens we can continue to wallow in our collective ignorance and apathy, and continue asking dumb questions such as “why did the administration invade Iraq without an exit plan” or “why the U.S. invaded Iraq in the first place”, while tens of thousands of Iraqis die and are maimed, and thousands more U.S. servicemen suffer similar fates, but by this point at least some of the truth of the matter should be clear to all but the most slowwitted. It has certainly hit Cindy Sheehan, and probably a lot faster than most people. The U.S. doesn’t have an “exit” plan because they had no intention of leaving Iraq, or probably Afghanistan for that matter, for the foreseeable future. The U.S. has already unveiled plans for an embassy in Iraq that would be the largest embassy in the world. As was recently reiterated by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and a senior U.S. commander, the ruling elite favors a protracted U.S. troop presence in Iraq along the lines of the military stabilization force in South Korea. Those statements echoed those of White House press secretary Tony Snow earlier in that week, indicating the length of the U.S. deployment in Iraq, is “unanswerable”.

Cindy Sheehan’s Herculean personal efforts against the Iraq war have left her emotionally and physically exhausted, and apparently at least a little jaded. Indeed the realization that your believed salvation and those who you elected to represent your interest, namely the Democrats, are anything but saviors and can hardly be counted on to represent your interest, can be a very difficult conclusion to reach. The idea that meaningful social change is not like American Idol, where you can just dial in and decide a new champion and you only have to take action once a year, puts the onus squarely back on the American public. Ultimately social change in this society is a bottom-up process, not a top-down one, and will have to be accomplished outside of the boundaries of the Democratic and Republican parties set up to control us. Our “leaders” and elected officials rarely lead, and often not in the right direction when they do. The end of the Iraq war as well as many other progressive changes will come when people begin to understand the importance of such a struggle and are willing to make even small personal sacrifices in order to wage it, as Cindy Sheenan wrote in her farewell and resignation letter, “It’s now up to You.”

Released: June 11^th, 2007

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