Cindy Sheehan: “Challenge the Status Quo”
Fresh from being arrested on Capitol Hill, along with 45 other activists demanding that Congress get about the business of impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney, Cindy Sheehan has determined that she can no longer count on others to stop the war in Iraq or hold a lawless administration to account.
So she has announced that she will, indeed, challenge House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s bid for reelection next year.
It is a bold gesture, rooted in the deep frustration of the nation’s most prominent anti-war activist with Pelosi’s hyper-cautious approach to her duties as both the leader of the congressional opposition to an unpopular president and as a sworn defender of the Constitution.
This is the context in which Sheehan proposes to challenge Pelosi. “At the end of this day, Speaker Pelosi has not supported impeachment and has not upheld her oath of office to ‘protect and defend’ the Constitution,” says the challenger.
Sheehan’s bid, presumably on an independent line, will be uphill all the way. Pelosi has all the advantages of incumbency — and more. Closely tied for decades to the Democratic political establishment of San Francisco, Pelosi and her campaign team know just about everything there is to know about winning elections there. And, as the Speaker of the House, she has the ability to deliver both on the practical and egotistical needs of the city by the bay. Additionally, she has the ability to raise and spend more money than any opponent.
With all of this said, however, Sheehan has standing.
It is not just that she enjoys her own prominence, and a measure of sympathy and respect, as the mother of slain soldier Casey Sheehan who turned her personal grief into a powerful call for accountability from President Bush and those who were responsible for the illegal and immoral war that claimed Casey’s life.
What makes Sheehan a potentially credible challenger is the fact that, by any reasonable measure, she is more in touch with the true passions of San Francisco’s voters than Pelosi. Pelosi is a war critic, but she has never gone to the mat on the issue. San Franciscans, on the other hand, have voted overwhelmingly for immediate withdrawal. Similarly, Pelosi says that impeachment is “off the table,” despite the fact that San Franciscans voted by a 3-2 margin last fall in favor of holding the president and vice president to account.
For Sheehan, it is Pelosi’s determination to protect Bush and Cheney from demands for accountability that tipped the balance in favor of making the race against the Speaker.
And it is Sheehan’s faith that Bush and Cheney must be held to account — not just to constrain them but to constrain the excesses of future presidents and vice presidents — that will define her challenge to Pelosi. There is no question that the war in Iraq is an issue, but the deeper concern is with the political compromises that made possible that war and that have allowed for its continuation.
“If anybody would dare think that I am not serious, I would hope that they would look back at the last three years of my life and everything that I have sacrificed to restore our nation to one that obeys the rule of law and can be looked up to with respect once again in the international community and not as the hated laughingstock on the block,” says Sheehan. “I am committed to challenging a two party system that has kept us in a state of constant warfare for the last 60 years and has become more and more beholden to special interests and has forgotten the faces of the people whom it represents.”
Sheehan continues, “I am committed to using our strength as a country to wage peace and to elevate the status of every citizen in our country by converting the enduring war economy to a prosperous one with lasting peace.”
If that sounds like a campaign speech, it is. And as someone who has appeared on dozens of platforms with Sheehan over the past few years, I can confirm that she is able to deliver a stemwinder in the best old populist sense.
Good speeches do not always translate to electoral success, however, as the Rev. Jesse Jackson,
Nothing about challenging Nancy Pelosi will be easy. Victory is unlikely. But, as George Bush will confirm, Cindy Sheehan has shaken the political establishment before. And she is determined to do so again — not just as one “Peace Mom” running for Congress but as part of a political upheaval that she dares to dream might involve a lot more than a spirited contest in San Francisco.
“Someone needs to step up to the plate to do this and I challenge other Americans to do the same,” says Sheehan. “Challenge the status quo, because the status quo is no good. We need to become plugged into our government once again as active participants not just passive voters.”
John Nichols’ new book is The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism. Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson hails it as a “nervy, acerbic, passionately argued history-cum-polemic [that] combines a rich examination of the parliamentary roots and past use of the ‘heroic medicine’ that is impeachment with a call for Democratic leaders to ‘reclaim and reuse the most vital tool handed to us by the founders for the defense of our most basic liberties.’”
Copyright © 2007 The Nation
http://www.sheehanforcongress.us is a site where people can sign up to support Sheehan’s campaign. Just getting started, we are currently self-organizing unofficially– 100 and growing!
I’m a San Franciscan and can’t wait to cast my vote for Ms. Sheehan. However, all Pelosi’s got to do to win me back is take a few risks, including beginning the process of impeaching the war criminals in the White House. As I’m not counting on that, Sheehan’s going to be one of the first politicians in *years* to have my enthusiastic support.
I predict that 2008 will have shades of 1968.
Now that the strong Anti-War bloc has taken care of Nancy Pelosi, now we need a prominent anti-war critic to challenge John Conyers in the great state of Michigan.
“I am committed to challenging a two party system that has kept us in a state of constant warfare for the last 60 years and has become more and more beholden to special interests and has forgotten the faces of the people whom it represents.”
Sheehan continues, “I am committed to using our strength as a country to wage peace and to elevate the status of every citizen in our country by converting the enduring war economy to a prosperous one with lasting peace.”
These are the most salient issues of our times; we will not be able to solve the avalanche of coming crises–fossil fuel depletion, climate change, and their socio-economic effects–given the current Imperial nature of US government and Corporate economy. The only member of congress pursuing similar policy goals as Sheehan is Kucinich, although a few others might be counted. The coming struggle is between continued Corporate/Death Party rule and Citizen focused/Life Party assention. Sheehan is 100% correct to say “Challenge the status quo, because the status quo is no good.”
I will be supporting Cindy as much as I can. She has proven her worth by walking the walk, not just talking the talk. That means more than anything any politician has done so far to address the needs of this country and to listen to the voice of the people. I believe the response of the country to her candidacy will be overwhelming - can’t wait to see it progress!
This is the beginning of the end for the rule of the two-headed Politburo that directs the Demublicans.
“There is one party in America, the Propertarian Party, and it has two right wings” — quoth Gore Vidal.
We can see them directing scorn towards the people’s candidates & puffing up the Glamdidates, whose qualifications are always discussed in terms of “charisma” & other PR terms. If a female, how’s she dressed? if a male, d’y'wanna have a beer?
Just as the revolutions of the 19th century were delayed by the triumph of reactionary princes, so the revolutions that were to occur in 1968 were delayed by the corporations & by the degeneration of supposedly revolutoinary governments into self-protective states. But change continues, even as rulers attempt to throttle it, and the fundamental changes in human life can’t be delayed forever.
A pebble begins rolling down a hill . . .
To John:
John, you say of her bid to challenge Pelosi for her seat in the House “. . . presumably on an independent line.” I think that is a very bad idea. There are many true progressives in the Democratic Party and the Green Party is full of true progressives. To abandon these two parties–the former with the infrastructure for progressive change and the latter with the ideology for progressive change, is to fail to build on progressive accomplishment of both. There are now over 20 state progressive caucuses in the Democratic Party. The Green Party is the only national progressive party.
To Cindy:
I urge you Cindy (and your supporters) not to wait until the general election to run against Pelosi as an independent. Run a two-step, two-party race. Run against her as a Democrat in the Primary. Then if you don’t win, get on the Green Party ticket and run on their 2008 Progressive Platform against her in the general election for the House seat she currently disgraces. (The GP platform agrees with you on Iraq and foreign policy.) By working with both parties Cindy, you can get lots of support from true progressives in both parties–and support from the San Francisco progressive majority. Don’t deprive San Francisco folks of the choice to vote for you in the Democratic Primary. Remember, San Francisco voters already voted to impeach Bush. With this plan progressive Democrats will get behind you. And the Green Party will not oppose you if you win the primary.
I guess SF is different than where I’m from, but personally, I’d forget the Democrats. Across the country there were instances of candidates who lied to voters in the last election. If the Democrats want respect they shoud earn it instead of sitting on their hands and whining when they are challenged by someone better qualified.
I’d vote Green, but as far as I’m concerned, the Democratic party has too many institutionalized problems, despite a few progressives in the party who are laudatory (but who have mostly failed to get anywhere with their mainstream Democratic colleagues).
What the Democrats (and Republicans) need is a real challenge.
I think Earthian is dead on. Please go on over to http://www.sheehanforcongress.us as Clark Kent posted above and get the word to Cindy.
Thanks Earthian
PS I tried to get Earthisns comment over to the link I gave. Can’t figure it out how to do it. Does anybody know how to get this comment directly to Cindy?
As someone living in Steny Hoyer’s district, and being incredibly unhappy with him, I can give my whole-hearted support to Cindy. I will donate to her campaign. I don’t care if she ultimately wins. We need to challenge entrenched power, like Speaker Pelosi, speak the truth, and give ‘em Hell. At this point I don’t care if Pelosi or Hoyer lose their seats to Rethuglicans, there isn’t much difference when they ignore the issues people sent them to Congress to act on in the first place - like stopping our military involvement in Iraq and impeaching Bush and Cheney. GO CINDY!
remember when Cindy Sheehan was retiring?
impeachment, while justified, is the dead wrong move to make. it will only further antagonize and marginalize lots of ordinary people across the country, who while disagreeing with the current situation, see no need for another impeachment ’scandal’. what’s worse, to many, it will seem more like “political payback” than anything else. people will be thinking “see, the democrats are just as bad as republicans…they are doing the same thing DeLay and fat Hastert did”.
Nichols writes “Nothing about challenging Nancy Pelosi will be easy. Victory is unlikely.”
Unlikely? Baloney.
There are so many people in the country enraged at Pelosi as the very symbol of the House refusal to impeach, that she would be a target for people from Maine to Florida to WA to AZ. People who had never ever contributed to a campaign would send money. Just consider how many people read Common Dreams, then consider her presence on the Internet generally. She’d hit $50,000,000 so fast it would make the country’s collective head spin.
Nichols writes “Nothing about challenging Nancy Pelosi will be easy. Victory is unlikely.”
Unlikely? Baloney.
There are so many people in the country enraged at Pelosi as the very symbol of the House refusal to impeach, that she would be a target for people from Maine to Florida to WA to AZ. People who had never ever contributed to a campaign would send money. Just consider how many people read Common Dreams, then consider her presence on the Internet generally. She’d hit $50,000,000 so fast it would make the country’s collective head spin.
Earthian (2:42 pm) is dead wrong, in several ways. To start with, Sheehan herself is way too smart, & has learned too much, too painfully, to ever fall again for the tricks of the 2-party monster. She despises it, and rightly so. She understands its real nature. I doubt she’ll ever again make the mistake of trusting Democrats.
Earthian claims the Dems have “the infrastructure for progressive change.” This is a sadly amusing phrase. Unfortunately, the truth is that there is no such thing as a “progressive Democrat.” People who haven’t learned that yet are just kidding themselves. The Democratic Party is rotten to the core. Its foundations stink, and anyone who gets into it comes under immense corrupting pressures. (Witness the disgraceful performance of John Conyers on Monday — and bear in mind, this is a basically decent man, without doubt one of the “better” Democrats. Look at Feingold, one of the “best” Democrats, reduced to pathetic doubletalk on Sunday, claiming on the one hand that Bush has committed impeachable crimes, but that he doesn’t support impeachment because, uhhh, it would be too scary & unpleasant.)
The moment you become part of the Dem Party, you accept all the assumptions of the 2-party system. You become a Pelosi, a Reid, a Conyers, a Kerry — neutered, & joined at the hip with the rightwing gangsters. You start working for the same corporate masters that the gangsters serve, so you don’t dare say anything too nasty about the gangsters. (It might upset your big donors.) Even if you sincerely long to expose Bush as the criminal he is, a Dem “consultant” comes to your office & says discreetly that “such talk would not be advisable at this time.” And if that doesn’t work, Pelosi threatens to take away your committee chair, if you don’t get back to toeing the party line.
To make real progress, people must recognize that the 2-party system is intrinsically corrupting. It has led us into this horrific mess, because it’s really just a mechanism permitting complete corporate domination of politics. A system permitting this degree of corruption can’t possibly cure itself, because to do so would require the parties telling the donors to get lost — and you can’t talk that way to people who own you.
The real history of the Democrats since WWII is that they’ve helped grow the military-industrial monster just as much as the Republicans. They’ve supported all the dirty CIA covert ops & immoral US interventions overseas, just as much as Republicans. Their function is to superficially pretend to oppose Republicans, while slyly & quietly assisting them. The Democrats are deceitful two-faced Judases. Trusting Judases has been shown to be hazardous to your health.
In an empire, there are only two political questions of much importance: (1) who NOW wears the purple; and (2) who WILL wear the purple in future.
Americans are being quickly acclimated to these truths by (1) the VERY premature campaign for president, presently in progress (for the full four-year term, beginning 20 January 2009); and (2) Congress and the judiciary disqualifying themselves from participation in the government, by carefully AVOIDING confrontations with the president. [How can one claim to be a fighter (contestant), without climbing into the ring occasionally?]
There is historical precedent. On the single occasion Elizabeth I sought her parliament’s advice on a matter of foreign policy; parliament protested their incompetence to advise her! Foreign affairs, they argued, were the province of “statesmen.”
Two rigged presidential elections, in 2000 and 2004, have persuaded many Americans their emperors are no longer elected–certainly not by them. Yet, the lack of significant, or indeed of any protest, to the ending of elections, must mean the country by and large PREFERS Diebold’s wizardry to the power struggles and frequent violence, which so often accompanied the imperial succession in other realms.
So, without a bang or a whimper, we go placidly into that good night.
DICTERFREUND says, “Just as the revolutions of the 19th century were delayed by the triumph of reactionary princes, so the revolutions that were to occur in 1968 were delayed by the corporations & by the degeneration of supposedly revolutoinary governments into self-protective states. But change continues, even as rulers attempt to throttle it, and the fundamental changes in human life can’t be delayed forever.” WONDERFUL insight, and to those that think because progress has been co-opted the official AQUARIAN age is off, this IS the best explanation I have read for the recidivistic trends. (Uranus, the maverick and planet of revolution, not to mention rebels, “rules” Aquarius but it is currently transiting Pisces, the sign of two fish, and also of potentials for lies, duplicity and division. Pisces is ruled by Neptune, the great deceiver, and it is crossing Aquarius, the sign of Truth. In other words this juncture is one of great and grave confusion because it is the mundane equivalent of a cosmic changing of the guard. The power structures sense the inevitable changes that have been struck on the cosmic wheel of time, and are fighting back through corporate hegemony, massive military build-ups, control of the presses and spying on citizens. The surveillance state of the new U.S could well become a model for other lands. UK has its national ID card program, and other nations may follow suit.) The tide will build till it cannot be contained… but I don’t think the actual transformation (given the arbiters of global warming, the rising gap between rich and poor, the electronically faked elections, etc) is going to be pretty or especially peaceful.
RICH M says, “The real history of the Democrats since WWII is that they’ve helped grow the military-industrial monster just as much as the Republicans. They’ve supported all the dirty CIA covert ops & immoral US interventions overseas, just as much as Republicans. Their function is to superficially pretend to oppose Republicans, while slyly & quietly assisting them. The Democrats are deceitful two-faced Judases. Trusting Judases has been shown to be hazardous to your health.” EXACTLY. (This is why on a fiction level I “cloned” Ralph Nader and submitted it as script to Hollywood. Almost predictably rejected, it’s being self-published NOW. One Nader clone makes a sterling case against “free trade” during his moot court assignment at NYU!)
Yes, I personally can’t wait until the empire crumbles. 2012 is when the social security IOU’s come up and that will be when it starts. First step, support real candidates of either party who are running against established chumps, wherever you are.
I am signed up to do whatever I can do to help. Anytime ,Anyplace. Ms. Sheehan is the first “real candidate” I have ever seen.
RichM: I agree with most of what you say about the Dems and the current way they function. But if Cindy could win the Dem primary without DLC support and only grassroots money, I think it could send a very strong message to the Dem machine that “the times they are a changin”. It would also encourage others to run in primaries to upset incumbsant Dems that need to go. NOW!
I mean, look at Kucinich. He is on some very powerful committees. He hasn’t been corrupted. He doesn’t play the political gamemenship to become speaker, or to be supported by the DLC for president. But if there were more uncorrupted Dems in Congress, he and others would have a chance.
If you think Cindy could be bought or sold, I think you would be sadly mistaken. And there are a lot more out there like her if they can get grassroots financial and volunteer support.
So, what’s the worst that could happen? Cindy doesn’t win the Dem primary so she runs as an independent. At least Americans could vote for a candidate they believed in and send a very strong message to the Dem elite. I still think it’s worth a shot.
kduffy,
We can’t worry about ‘how it looks’, etc. If the constitution is valid, than impeachment is the only way to go. If not, than we are allowing the attitudes and superficialities of the day, to usurp the rule of law.
Peace
Siouxrose, I hate to admit that most of my life, astrology seemed like a bunch of poppycock to me, but recent developments in our country allow me to believe it may have some merit. When our politicians have managed to turn everything to chaos, greed trumps all else, the churchs have lost their way, and our nation is regarded as selfish bullies, I am ready to accept almost anything that is different from what we now have. I confess I made fun of water witching also until we had to use it to find a drilling spot and now I do it myself, so never say you cannot change your thinking.
Impeachment is the only just course to take. Any other is unjust.
www.NotONeMOre.US
after reading this list of ideas and observations written by “we the people”, the thought occured to me that the solutions to our national problems lies within the minds of the masses. but why do we continue to listen to “ex-perts”, who seemingly lose thier way on the path from thier own interests to the office of “serve the majority of americans”. it’s time to begin to listen to the people that have the majority in mind. kucinich is the only modern “polititian” that seems to vote his creed. this country began with a group of individuals governing the masses for benifit of all. we now have a group of individuals working for the benifit of thier “masters” and themselves. we the people have become lazy and complacent, and maybe for too long. it may already be too late for the america we knew. the money never relinquishes power willingly.
To Earthian, RichM, and others talking about Cindy’s run I’d like to add some thoughts.
Why would Cindy Sheehan announce a campaign for Pelosi’s seat running as an Independent? Think about it. In an area of the US known for its progressive ideas for change (gay rights, environment, peace) would not her efforts be more effective if she turned to the Green Party to support her? The bay area Greens are well organized. In fact the California Green Party is the largest and most organized state Green Party in the US. Cindy has publicly supported anti-war candidates from the Green Party and has worked with the Green Party on anti-war issues in the past. To turn her back on the ONLY political party that was against the Iraq War before it ever started and would be willing and able to assist her is to me the same as what the Democrats did to her! Her decision to dis the only progressive party that could mount a strong campaign for her just in order to run as an independent void of a strong base smacks of an ego driven sense of importance. She will need more than a one issue campaign to attract progressive voters. She will need a platform that will encompass all the issues that the Green party already embrasses!
Now more than ever, we need people like Cindy Sheehan to promote and support the ONLY peace party in this country. To have the “peace mom” completely ignore the Greens is NOT going to help her campaign in San Francisco.
KERNEL: One of the first books I ever read on the subject of astrology back in the mid l970’s was written by a NASA scientist. Generally disbelief is found in those who have glib prejudice drawn from NOTHING substantial. Most people’s exposure to astrology is equivalent to the way Fox does “news.” I write magazine horoscopes in order to pay my bills, but it’s the equivalent of Meryll Streep playing the same screen role over and over again. The reach of what I can see and understand through 30 years of studying this field of cosmic correspondences is VAST; but when I bring my work to agents/publishers, they say it’s over too many people’s heads and prefer to publish pabulum, the kind of astrology that’s based on market theories directing people’s appetites in 2 primary areas, either how to get laid (find love) and/or get rich (make $). I cannot and will not write at that level, and therefore am pleased that on-line publishing technology is such that I can afford to self-publish. The really profound things I write can only be understood by those who have studied the cycle of planets and see the efficacy of these abstract systems of correspondence, cosmic conchordance I call it. The more one studies the subject, the more one is drawn into the insights it can offer. As I always say, there’s a reason why Jesus used TWELVE disciples and why that was the number of tribes issuing from Abraham. TWELVE kinds of person walk earth paths, and like the proverbial snowflake, there is an infinite variation on each theme. We are far more than just our sun sign… but I am not prepared to offer astrology lessons here. I do appreciate YOUR open mind, and others have thanked me for the insights a celestial seer can bring to this forum. Naturally I am grounded enough and make it a point to keep up on events so as to recognize where the links in the great “as above, so below” equation announce themselves!
Other Democrat candidates may lose here too. Remember that the campaign money and campaign workers that the Bay area make available to the Democratic Party are great. If Pelosi is so self-center as we are coming to believe she is, there may be many more costs to this 2008 campaign yet unknown.
A campaign to replace Pelosi may be the start to real change for the Democratic Party. It was Jimmy Connors the tennis champion that served to his opponent’s strong side. Perhaps Cindy Sheehan understands this, too. Cindy Sheehan wants to change with us for the better. Running a campaign on principles that working people understand seems exciting and in San Francisco it may cause an earthquake.
Barbara Charline Jordan’s Statement on the Articles of Impeachment
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/barbarajordanjudiciarystatement.htm
Siouxrose, you old hippie you.
I still have very fond memories of the “Age of Aquarius” mythology so alive and part of the zeitgeist of the late ’60’s. Wonderful time, great memories, even with the scary stuff: I was in my first year in college here in East Texas during the Moratorium of 1969. There was an antiwar rally on campus. 30 of us and about 10 professors showed up for the teach-in–and were promptly surrounded by 50 cops. We were not hassled, but we definitely got the feeling that we were under the microscope.
But as to astrology (which I believed at the time): It is bullshit. The science ain’t there. We are going to have to solve our problems the hard way–facts and reason–and these “fluff” mythologies only stand in our way.
Earthian: I agree totally. Sheehan should run in the Dem primary. Look, the Dem’s ain’t much, but they’re all we got. A 3rd party coming to power won’t happen. But a takeover of the Dem’s by us progressives can most definitely happen–and I believe that is precisely what is happening now. The two parties are more philosophically different now than at any time since the FDR era, and I see that differentiation continuing. And Cindy Sheehan is precisely the sort of figure that can win–she has the attention and charisma to give Prog Dem’s the incentive and motivation to win.
Run, Cindy, Run–as a Democrat!