Apparently the two of us get hate mail from the same group of “peace-loving” lefties:
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 guess Cindy didn’t pick up on the sheer nuttiness of the Democratic Underground crowd when they were falling over themselves to sprinkle rose petals in her path. Everything was just peachy until she pissed some of them off. I’ve done that, many times, and I know what Cindy’s inbox must look like. Trust me, it isn’t pretty.
It’s easier for me though. I find hate mail from the psychotic left to be quite entertaining. It’s a pat on the back. A sign that I must be doing something right. Having your friends flip out on you must be more difficult to process. I’ve never had anyone on the right or middle of the blogosphere call me a “rabid jew” or “nazi” (my best critics usually find a way call me both in the same email) so I can’t really claim to know what she’s going through. I can honestly say, however, that I’m not surprised by this fracture.
I don’t think that the DUers are surprised either:
Shit. The DU hatred reached her. How sad. She must feel used and abused by now.
I don’t blame her one bit for leaving the movement. I am so ashamed that those hateful words, posted by a DUer, found their way to her. How embarrassing. Damn. Have a good life, Cindy…as good as you can have without your son Casey. :( Thank you for all you have done…I, for one, appreciate everything you did.
Isn’t it amazing how she was DU’s sweetheart while she was camped outside the psycho’s fake ranch, but as soon as she spoke out against the spineless Democrats in Congress, she became an ‘attention whore’ and told ‘good riddance’ when she announced she was leaving the Democratic Party? How shallow can some people be? That woman deserves a million medals for what she’s done, not insults and verbal abuse. :(
Bye, Cindy….I’ll miss you.
Don’t fret DU. She’ll be back. I give her 6 months to a year – tops.
Update – 5.30.2007:
We didn’t have to wait long for confirmation that she’ll be back:
Burns, though, said the announcement should be looked at less as a permanent retirement and more as time off.
“Even though Cindy is, quote-unquote, retiring from the movement, she’s really just taking more of a break,” said Burns. “She’s not going away. Stay tuned.”
Surprised?
Bloggers React:
The Populist
Your Son, Casey volunteered to go to Iraq. He was not forced, He was not arrested, tied up, bound and MADE to go to Iraq, He went on his own free will. Because he wanted to go, and serve his country. So, quite frankly, I don’t pity you one bit. I feel that you’re an opportunist. Who sought to cash on your sons death to further the agenda of the far left. and now, the same one’s you helped are now stabbing you in the back. welcome to liberalism. This is why I avoid them, I know their game.
Laurence Simon
You know, I always found the title of “Peace Mother” to be somewhat ironic when it came to Cindy, since her dictator-hugging globetrotting adventures and berserk madcap outbursts in from of cameras across the country resulted in her abandoning her family.
Little Green Footballs
In another whiny Daily Kos post suffering from egregious thesaurus abuse, Cindy Sheehan says her son died for nothing, the anti-war movement is full of egomaniacs and lunatics, and all her dreams have been shattered.
TalkLeft
Thank you Cindy, for all you have done, and we’ll take it from here. You’ve earned your place in history and Casey would be proud.
Huffington Post
She is obviously exhausted, embittered, frustrated, and angry, saying that being called “an attention whore” is one of the milder rebukes she’s faced. The Iraq funding bill was the last straw for her. Like so many other anti-war activists, she felt betrayed by the Democrats who supported the bill; after the vote she publicly quit the party.
Tammy Bruce
Don’t let the door hit you on the way out. Heck, we could hope she turns to wrestling, or the Ultimate Fighter Championships. With our luck, she’ll return like a bad penny on The Biggest Loser (to shed the 100 pounds she gains after losing all that attention), or, with her money problems, she could take over for Gary Coleman on those “Cash Call” commercials. Ultimately, she could take a page from the late Dana Plato and try to hold up a dry cleaner in Vegas. If she wore a Jimmy Carter mask, she might actually get away with it.
Blackfive
I don’t have anything bad to say about Cindy Sheehan. Those of you who used her, though, as long as her grief was a useful weapon to you — you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. She deserved, as does any mother of a fallen Marine, better than she has had.
The Gun Toting Liberal
In closing, if Cindy’s REALLY going “bye-bye”, while I understand the frustration, I kind of wish she wouldn’t. My fellow Americans need to hear what she is saying about this poisoned two party “system” and resultant, twisted, DISGUSTING oligachy of ours, and we might still be able to “fix” it if we don’t give up. Say it with me, Cindy: “A Government, OF the Corporations, BY the Corporations, and FOR the Corporations”, just as I have been saying all along…
Don Surber
Goodbye, Mrs. Sheehan. Enjoy whatever planet you land on. Sorry that those of us with ideas of our own have a different opinion.
Mercury Rising
This is a tragedy for this entire nation, not just for the peace movement. The lamp of Liberty itself is flickering. Cindy Sheehan is in many ways the archetypal American. In her willingness to sacrifice for her beliefs, she represents the best this country has to offer. For her to give up hope on the political system means that many others are reaching the conclusion that the system has failed.
The Democratic Daily
It’s time to bring our troops home. It’s time for Americans to wake up to the need for a fundamental change in our government. I look around at the field of Democratic candidates and I can’t get excited. The best leaders in our party aren’t running. What to do? A wish and prayer won’t get us far these days.
NewsBusters
It’s been a full 48 hours since antiwar icon Cindy Sheehan publicly announced that she was leaving the Democrat Party due to Thursday’s bipartisan agreement on an Iraq war funding bill. Yet, Google News and LexisNexis searches have identified that not one major media outlet has covered her announcement. Not one.
TigerHawk
I’ve been awfully hard on Cindy Sheehan in the past, but only because I assumed she knew she was a tool of the partisans and delighted to serve that purpose. It is actually sort of sad to think that all along she believed that her supporters were sincerely interested in victory for her cause, as opposed to victory for their candidates.
Absolute Moral Authority
I thought this was about Casey, the noble individual who EFFING DIED! not about a worn out and put away wet old broad who needs her “me time” in front of a national camera.
Captain’s Quarters
I hope she does return to her family and regain what she has lost. She lost her son, and she lost the rest of her family when she tried to turn herself into a weird kind of martyr. Now that she’s climbing down off the cross, perhaps she can finally find some comfort in her surviving children and leave behind the lunacy she has exhibited in her fringe-Left campaign against not just George Bush but the country towards which she feels so much bitterness.
