Always felt sorry for her on two counts – loss of her son and the cruel way the left exploited her sorrow and naivete:
Just a few years back, she was the media’s darling. Cindy Sheehan, mother of a soldier slain in Iraq, led the anti-war charge against George W. Bush. Egged on by the mainstream media and left-wing activists eager to put a “face” to their cause, she camped out in front of Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. The entire situation became a media circus, with Sheehan at its epicenter. We saw her getting her hair cut at “Camp Casey,” saw her visiting her son’s grave with media flunkies in tow, and watched her get up close and personal with Hugo Chávez. Feted and celebrated, she could do no wrong; she held what has been called an “absolute moral authority card.”
So what exactly happened? Where is Sheehan today? She said she was quitting public life back in 2007 when, according to her post on Daily Kos, her cutting ties with the Democratic Party got her “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 [sic] rebukes.” Just a year later, though, she tried to unseat Nancy Pelosi. Perhaps having had a taste of the limelight, she couldn’t help herself. But, as one could have predicted, she was beaten handily by San Fran Nan — receiving less than 18 percent of the vote.
You might think that Sheehan had given up entirely and gone back to the quiet, placid existence that most Americans live, but you’d be wrong. It’s just that the left and the media have finished with her. Having wrung every ounce of moral authority and celebrity out of the poor woman that they could, they’ve moved on to greener pastures. It’s an era of hope and change, you know, and now that The One™ is in office, Sheehan’s brand of anti-war activism is no longer a welcome diversion — it’s more of an unwelcome distraction.
The alleged fierce, moral urgency of being anti-war during the Bush years has been replaced by the fierce, moral urgency of slavish devotion to executive power. In this Sheehan is no longer needed, and so she’s frozen out. A few die-hard pacifists still hang around, but the rest of the left has no more use for her – it was never about the war, Cindy, or your heroic son…it was all about bashing President Bush with whatever club came to hand.
It must always be kept in mind that when dealing with the left, power is the central thing – the retention and expansion of same for leftist leaders. If, by some strange chance, doing the right thing coincides with this, then that is ok. But for most of the time, “right thing” and “leftist power” are in opposite corners and so a ruthless, cynical manipulation is necessary to make it appear there it a bit of “right thing” in leftist actions. Sheehan hasn’t entirely figured it out as she’s officially blaming Bush for the lack of funds she suffers under – but, once upon a time she was proud of her hero son and took comfort from President Bush’s strong, moral stance on the war….perhaps she’ll wake and go back to that.
Whatever else happens, Sheehan provides an excellent object lesson for anyone who wishes to join the left. You can do so and gain a lot of wealth and fame – but as soon as you are no longer needed, you will be discarded like yesterday’s trash.
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