A DUer's open letter to Cindy Sheehan

[derby378]

Dear Cindy:

First off, I just have to say how much of an inspiration you've been to me. I only wish half the Democratic activists and party officers had as much spine and gumption as you do. You stood up to George W. Bush and exposed the soft, cowardly jelly hiding behind that macho, faux-Texan exoskeleton. For that alone, you would have my thanks. But you also revitalized an increasingly impotent peace movement in America with your simple courage and with your desire to honor your son, Casey. And I love you all the more for it.

And I would be so happy, if Nancy Pelosi won't deliver on articles of impeachment, to see you run against Pelosi for her seat in the House of Representatives...

...but only, I repeat, only as a Democrat.

I know that a lot of Democrats on the Hill done you wrong. They done me wrong, too, as well as our troops who are pinned down in Iraq and forced to fight in a theater that their fellow Americans do not want them in.

But I'm also a Democratic precinct chair. And I'm trying to implement the lessons learned in Camp Casey in my role as a precinct chair, because it is my intention to help transform the Democratic Party from the ground up, not merely attack it from without and hope it begs for mercy.

I know that, if you're elected as an independent, you'd sooner caucus with a day-old tuna sandwich than you would with the Republicans. But that's not the point. The Democratic Party is the oldest surviving party in the United States, and even with all of its shortcomings, it's still the best hope we have for rescuing America from the disgrace that Herr Decider has visited upon our nation.

For a long time, I've been telling my fellow Democrats to get off their asses and get on the front lines of the Democratic Party if they don't like where their party is headed. It's a lesson I learned from a heart-to-heart talk with my mentor when I expressed my frustration at some Democrats' apparent inability to get things done. So I got off my own ass, started working within the party instead of against it, and I'm actually beginning to see a little progress taking place. And all because I started standing up and speaking up in Democratic Party meetings.

Cindy Sheehan, I love you and support your work, and I want nothing but the best for you and your family. You continue to inspire me every day.

But I know where I'm needed the most. My beloved party is standing at a crossroads in our nation's most desperate hour. And that's why I'm supporting Democratic candidates in 2008 - and only Democratic candidates.

And if you ever decide to run as a Democrat in 2008, you've got my enthusiastic support.

God speed, Cindy. I know you'll do what you believe is right.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Would you not agree it is important for us to push our elected Dems

to a more progressive stance on most issues, but especially the war?

This is a strategy to that end.

[derby378]

4. Understood - but Mohamedas Gandhi once advised, "Be the change"

It's a quote that Cindy has used before at Camp Casey, and a sentiment that I consider very powerful.

So I can't wait for the Democratic rank-and-file to change. I have to be part of that change; otherwise why would I even get involved in party politics in the first place unless I just want to become another spineless yes-man that Cindy would despise?

Cindy's got lots of friends in the party, even after the Memorial Day Disgrace that drove her from the party. I know she realizes that.

[proud2BlibKansan]

6. And I know that you know that ending the war is #1 for Cindy

It isn't about party loyalty.

I am a precinct chair too but I will walk away from that in a heartbeat if I think the peace movement is more important.

[derby378]

8. I hear you...

...and what I really want is for the peace movement to completely wash over the Democratic Party and cleanse us. I realize that's a tall order, but I can still dream.

Still down in Crawford? How's the weather treating you?

[proud2BlibKansan]

14. Yes still here but leaving first thing in the morning

It's been a terrific weekend. Cindy told us about her plans on Friday night, on Saturday she transferred the deed to Bree and we had a wild birthday party for Cindy last night. Today we went out to Camp Casey 1 and Camp Casey 2.

Here is Camp 2 today.

[derby378]

21. Don't forget Czech Stop on I-35 in West

Yummy goodness awaits you! :hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

23. We stopped there on Friday

and got bread for camp. It was a HUGE hit. Thanks for the recommendation!!!

We are getting ready to leave now so we can stop by Dallas and see the scene of the Kennedy murder.

[derby378]

29. I'm so glad you liked it

As for the JFK site, there's a Sixth Floor Museum showing the window where Oswald appears to have taken the shots. We used to have a Conspiracy Museum as well that conducted guided tours and had their own theories on the JFK assassination, but they shut down about a year ago.

Mind the construction - sometimes it can be a loo-loo!

And if it's not too late, stock up on meat kolaches at Czech Stop one last time. :evilgrin:

[mike_c]

2. putting party before principles is what created the modern day...

...republican mafia. I know you don't mean to support that sort of blind allegiance, but IF you believe that Sheehan is a better choice for the job than Pelosi, then supporting Sheehan seems the best choice for the nation, if not for the democratic party. And frankly, an unabashed progressive antiwar candidate unseating a timid, triangulating democrat who is out of touch with much of the base sounds like a good thing for the party as well, kind of like trimming a tree to cut out the rot and save it's life.

[derby378]

5. So why can't an "unabashed progressive antiwar candidate" be a Democrat?

I hear you. Cindy would make a great Congresswoman. But she'd be even better if there was a D next to her name. It would make DiFi squirm in her seat like she just swallowed rattlesnake eggs.

[Solon]

20. Because they would have to sell their soul to actually BE a Democrat. n/t

[truedelphi]

3. I'm sorry about this - but you need to understand how POLITICS

works - Sheehan cannot act as a Democrat.

In order for Pelosi to get where she is today, she had to seek out Di feinstein's blessing.

In fact to run just as a candidate for city council person in Sausalito, I would have had to get Di Feinstein's blessing. (or the blessing of someone close to her.)

And you have to have certain things going on to get that blessing - either be a big time contributer to Feinstein's war - oops I mean campaign chest. Or have someone who is close to Di speak up for you.

Di Feinstein is about war profits. Can you really really really see Sheehan prostrate herself before the creep Feinstein? I mean, we are talking about a woman whose son died in Iraq prostrating herself before a woman whose husband made 27 million dollars for a contract regarding Iraq matters just weeks after Feinstein voted for the war.

I imagine Sheehan would get ill if she had to be within several feet of Feinstein.

California politics is heavily controlled. Heavily.

Sheehan has little choice in the matter. I mean - at least if she plans to run for office in this century.

[derby378]

7. Is it the Democratic Party or the "DiFi" Party?

Honestly, if it just boils down to DiFi this and DiFi that, maybe it's time to sidestep the distinguished Senator and show her how impotent she really is. I mean, look at me - I'm an unapologetic pro-gun Democrat. You think that's going to endear me to Debbie Wasserman-Schultz or Barney Frank, let alone DiFi? I can't let myself be bothered with that. Besides, I like to think that Russ Feingold and Jim Webb have got my back covered here...

But when it comes to anti-war activism, few people in America have the street cred that Cindy brings to the table. Certainly not DiFi, that's for damn sure.

[truedelphi]

10. I like your sentiments (and the pro-gun thing don't bother me)

It's justthat in Califormia - in the Bay area there is heavy contol

A guy named Steve Westly wanted to run as a Democrat for governor against terminator man.

He'd have had my vote - in fact had he run he may well have won - bringing a lot of centrist Republicans over to him.

But despite his money and organization and name recognition (he was founder of E Bay I believe)
the Democrtic party hung him out to dry in order to install one of their party hacks as the Democrartic canddiate. (A guy whose name I cannot even remember but he looked rodent-ish)

Pelosi and Feinstein preferred self sabotage to victory in this case. Why? I don't know. Could be they occassionally take money from the Repukes to self-sabotage or could be that they just like machine politics so much that they would prefer to do things their way and die rather than the better way and live.

[Robbien]

9. Your attitude is why the Democratic party dismisses it grassroots

Some grassroot Dems say no matter what the Democratic party does, I am going to send my money to the Dems, GOTV for the Dems and vote for the Dems. I will sell my first born to further the Dem cause.

Dem Do or Die.

And the Democratic party spits on you, laughs and passes bills that takes money from your pockets and puts it into lobbyist's.

To them, you are nothing but an ATM and a vote.

[derby378]

11. You don't get it - I *am* part of the Democratic Party

Yes, I'm part of the lower echelons, but there's a lot of grassroots activists that will distribute yard signs, cheer at rallies, and shake hands with the candidates - but they won't bother with becoming precinct chairs or any other official within the party itself.

If you're a Democrat who's fed up with the party, I offer my advice once again: get off your ass. Run for precinct chair. Run for your state party's executive committee. Do something.

[Robbien]

12. Do something to you means

don't do something to better one's community
don't do something to help out the less fortunate
don't do anything meaningful at all

To you it means, go out and give your money to the Dem party and vote and get others to vote Dem. You say, when the DC Dems pass only those laws which make you and your community poorer, STFU. You say, when Dems want to kill your kid in wars, STFU. Dem Do or Die.

[philosophie_en_rose]

13. You have no idea what people are doing in their community.

Wasting a vote on a third party candidate "does" as much as Ralph Nader. . . and the Republicans.

Which spits upon all of the things that she (and you) claim to favor.

Claiming that disagreeing with you on an internet board means "STFU" is a thin-skinned Ann Coulter-esque argument.

[Robbien]

15. I have an idea of what

I do for my community and I have an idea of what Cindy does for hers.

When Cindy said she is not going to blindly follow bad Dem plans, DUer Derby378 effectively told her to STFU by her OP.

When I said I also agree with Cindy and will not blindly follow bad Dem plans, Derby378 told me to STFU and I should get out there and do something useful like go be head chief meatball in charge of getting people to vote Dem.

When the Dem party is clearly heading down the wrong path, I choose not to follow.

And yes, I agree with you, when Derby378 kept saying to me and Cindy STFU and vote Dem, that was Ann Coulter-esque.

[TheBaldyMan]

17. tht's bollocks and you know it.

derby said no such thing, somebody going into local government politics doesn't automaticlly mean that they won't or can't do other stuff that benefits your community.

That claim is just plain dishonest.

I don't want to put words into derby's mouth but the read I got from derby's post was "Want to better your community, help out the less fortunate, do something meaningful? One way is to run for local government"

Do you propose that all that stuff is left to volunteer groups. Local governments around America have led the call for impeachment, an end to the Iraq war and other stuff that the central committee insists is 'off the table'.

You want real change in a political party, a whole bunch of you have to start from the ground and work your way up.

[derby378]

22. Thank you...

I just wish people would read my messages a little more carefully once in a while before lashing out. You obviously "got it." :hi:

[leftchick]

35. lol, ain't that the truth

"Dem Do or Die"

[comtec]

16. K & R

I think What Cindy wants to do is very commendable but we need to support the Dems. That's the only way we can marginalize the GoP. This is why the GoP keeps winning, because any GoP member who dissents is immediately silenced. They have the appearance of unity, and such, where they simply discount any outside ideas. I'm sorry Cindy, but either run as a Dem, or get out of the way.

I read many posts on teh main thread on this subject, and I think my final opinion is that 1. Cindy will loose, badly and nothing will really improve and 2. The GoP gets a little more life breathed into it because they can say "Look, Look, the Democrat party has no unity, vote for us, we at least all agree, ZIEG HAIL!".

My heart has always gone out to Cindy, and her movement. I always listened to her on Morning Sedition (may it rest in peace) on AAR and she is not the wild eyed nutter people attribute to her. I feel her pain, in that this pardon (in action if not in name) was just the last straw. How can we sit back, how can Nancy sit back and not even say, Impeach is BACK ON the table (which is in fact ALL Cindy is asking for)

PLEASE Nancy... Put impeachment back ON the table. That's all. Start a committee or two to look into it. More than that probably can not be done in the one year of useful legislating that is left. We need to at least show we support THE RULE OF LAW!

But Cindy, please don't run as a independent. We need you where you can do the most good, and that is not in the government.

A patriot in exile.

[Dragonbreathp9d]

18. K&R

[Solon]

19. "beloved party"?!?!?

What the fuck is with this partisan Bullshit? What the fuck is wrong with you to fucking LOVE a political party? They are tools, no more no less, and when broken you either fix it or discard it. You don't love these fucking tools.

Ah, what the fuck am I saying here, I can't reach you, you would place the good of the Democratic Party over the lives and livelihoods of people just so it can win elections. I hate this shit.

[DancingBear]

24. Thank you Solon

It is sickening - party hacks front and center.

When their party fails them, it is Nader's fault. When the best thing to happen to politics in 30 years shows up they crucify her for not being a Democrat. When you show them time after time after time how complicit their "beloved" party is in what is happening today they stick their fingers in their ears and scream out their "better than a Republican" mantra at the top of their lungs.

I hate this shit too, but what saddens me even more is the fact that neither you nor I nor Cindy Sheehan will ever reach them. They ARE the problem, and for every dollar they send to Clinton or Obama or Edwards they do nothing but compound it.

[DaveT]

27. This "debate" is ridiculous

The question at hand is whether to support Cindy Sheehan if she challenges Nancy Pelosi. When I first heard the idea, I assumed that it meant that Cindy would run against Nancy in the Democratic primary -- and I regard that as a no-brainer. Of course I would support Cindy and send her money to help her confront the brain-dead complacency that Pelosi has shown as Speaker of the House of Representative.

It would be the shock of the young century if Cindy were to pull off that upset -- but her national profile and her proven level of commitment would at least give her a chance to win.

But, it turns out that I am naive. To assume that Cindy would use the Democratic Party's ballot access for the anti-war cause is evidently a mistake. Maybe she will run as an independent or a third party candidate in the General Election. Hell, maybe she could walk in to the GOP nomination if she entered the Republican primary. Whatever.

If she does run outside the Democratic Party, that would be an incredibly stupid move. There will be a Presidential election going on in 2008, and the Bay Area will vote very heavily Democratic, regardless of who is running. To try to get people to split their ticket in that environment is one of those quixotic ideas that make perfect moral sense if you are trying to prove what a good person you are. But if you want to dump Pelosi out of office for being complicit with Bushism, your best shot is in the Democratic Primary.

Upthread, a Bay Area resident shares the world-weary wisdom that Diane Feinstein will not permit Pelosi to lose the Democratic nomination. Wow! That's a lot of power that Feinstein has! But it seems to me that if DiFi has the power to control the outcome of the Democratic primary, she also has the power to control the outcome of the General Election.

Of course Diane Feinstein has no such power to control the outcome of either election. And that kind of projection of ommipotence to Democratic "insiders" is the biggest reason why they have such continuing influence over the country, in spite of the fact that very few citizens share the views of the Democratic Leadership Council or weasel Democrats like Feinstein.

So, once again, a discussion of how to end the Bush night mare turns into a fratracidal argument about the Democratic Party. Rather than looking at the "party" as an instrument of power that can be wielded by different people with different philosophies -- the fatalistic whiners assert that it is an immutable thing out "there" somewhere that we are powerless to change.

I do not give a fig for the sentimental value of the Democratic Party. Its history includes that defense of Jim Crow and the gangster government of Boss Tweed. It provides exactly two benefits for progressives who want to change the disasterous course we are on -- it has automatic ballot access everywhere; and, there are tens of millions of voters who are loyal to the brand name.

Those are formidable assets that I don't want to throw away without having a realistic alternative for replacing them.

The people who want to create a new party start from a premise that you cannot change that Democratic Party from within. If that is true, and if a Cindy Sheehan cannot win a Democratic Primary in the San Francisco Bay Area, how in God's name can she or anybody else like her win in the general election? It takes far more votes to win in November than it does in the primary.

[derby378]

30. I sympathize, but you go to the poll with the Democratic Party you have right now

Geez, I'm starting to sound like Rumsfeld. Yeech.

Yes, the Democratic Party has skeletons in its closet, I agree with you. But no political party in America has totally clean hands as far as I'm aware. So you have to hunker down, find out where you're the most able to make an impact, and strap yourself in for the bumpy ride ahead.

And I have a much stronger preferences for the company of Democrats than Republicans. I used to hang out with the latter a long, long time ago until the BS finally reached critical mass and I realized that I didn't belong there after all.

[DaveT]

31. I don't think we disagree

the party contains a lot of elected officials that I do not admire -- and the primary is the place to get rid of them, if we can. Trying to start over from scratch makes no sense. At least to me.

(The weird alignment of replies sometimes makes me reply to a different post from what I intend.)

[Solon]

32. "skeletons in the closet" what about the zombies that are in the chest at the foot of the bed?

We have two political parties whose sole purpose for existing is trying to lock out any alternative viewpoints. You have party "stalwarts" i.e. brownshirts, on both sides browbeating those who dare to think or act different. You have two parties who have an almost 98% incumbency rate in what is supposed to be a democracy, because both are guilty of things like Gerrymandering, gaming the system to ensure they remain in whatever power they have. At the same time, they play politics games with the lives of people who have no fucking clue what the fuck is going on, and we are supposed to support this shit?

[derby378]

34. Y'know, if the two major political parties were the Democrats and the Greens...

...I don't think you'd have as much of a problem with this. This isn't about freezing out alternate viewpoints - we're supposed to be a nation that encourages alternate viewpoints - this is about giving our citizens and taxpayers what they've been denied for the past seven years.

[Solon]

36. I'm not a Green, so don't even go there...

I belong to NO political party, I stand by my principles, no more, no less, and I would loathe to surrender them to any flag or organization. Also, if we want to talk about actually allowing alternative viewpoints, then why won't the Dems advocate for the repeal of Public Law 62-5, and getting rid of our "winner take all" districting system?

[NoPasaran]

25. Funny, I could have sworn this was DEMOCRATIC Underground

You appear to be lost.

[Solon]

26. Back off buddy, been here since 2001, if you don't like it, tough shit....

The only reason I vote Democratic is because of the lack of real alternatives. The fact of the matter is that you can't do shit about it.

[DancingBear]

28. Well, you appear to be bamboozled

Truth is a bitch, ain't it?

Oh, and if you have any more tired bromides to "prove" whatever point you are trying to make DO send them right along.

[Forkboy]

33. Speaking of "lost"...

[puebloknot]

37. "A little progress" is not enough. People are dying in an illegal war.

Gandhi did not espouse "party" loyalty; far from it. He spoke out for justice for both Muslims and Hindus. A lot of misguided Germans stuck it out with Hitler, even though he "done them wrong" (to put it mildly) because they did not exercise their God-given ability to reason for themselves.

Personally, I will vote for *only* Democratic candidates who are willing to uphold their oath of office. It's hard to know that in advance, but I'll certainly never vote for a candidate who has already betrayed his or her oath to defend the Constitution.

[derby378]

38. I hear you...

But the "little progress" I mentioned was on the county party level. We tried to pass a resolution calling for the impeachment of Herr Decider in 2006, but too many delegates developed cold feet, mentioned "President Cheney," and slammed shut debate on the measure before we knew what hit us. The final vote, however, was very close.

[puebloknot]

39. Understood. And now with greater pressure for impeachment...

...maybe we'll see some forward movement.

About your sig line: Will you translate, please? My high school German isn't sufficient to the task! :)

[derby378]

40. Translation

Here ya go:

Those, who start by burning books, will end by burning men.

[puebloknot]

41. Thanks! And they did!