Imagine if Lyndon Johnson or Bill Clinton was president when Cindy Sheehan came knocking. Either would have come down to the driveway, embraced Sheehan, listened to her, cried with her, felt her pain. It matters not, politically, whether the presidential gesture was heartfelt or calculated: it would have instantly neutralized Sheehan as a focal point for opposition to the war.
But, as Frank Rich points out in the Times (The Swift Boating of Cindy Sheehan, New York Times, August 21, 2005), the only political weapons at the disposal of this administration are blunt and ugly. "The most prominent smear victims," Rich writes,
have been Bush political opponents with heroic Vietnam resumes: John McCain, Max Cleland, John Kerry. But the list of past targets stretches from the former counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke to Specialist Thomas Wilson, the grunt who publicly challenged Donald Rumsfeld about inadequately armored vehicles last December. The assault on the whistle-blower Joseph Wilson - the diplomat described by the first President Bush as "courageous" and "a true American hero" for confronting Saddam to save American hostages in 1991 - was so toxic it may yet send its perpetrators to jail.
That pattern continued when Sheehan blundered into the vacuum created by the lack of political leadership opposing the president. When it became clear that opposition to the war finally had a focus, Faux News instantly filled with tales about Sheehan's divorce, her angry Republican in-laws, her supposed political flip-flops, her incendiary sloganeering, her association with card-carrying opposers of the brave and noble president. "But this time," Rich concludes, "the Swift Boating failed, utterly, and that failure is yet another revealing historical marker in this summer's collapse of political support for the Iraq war."
Because, make no mistake, by setting up camp in Crawford, Sheehan has changed the political landscape. As Paul Harris reported in the Observer (Mother Tips the Balance against Bush, The Observer UK August 21, 2005 ), Cindy Sheehan's vigil outside Bush's vacation spot has galvanized the anti-war movement. The president's little war hasn't been going splendidly for some time, but, though widespread, opposition has been diffuse. It appears that the sight of Cindy Sheehan's beat-up red, white and blue bus, with "Impeachment Tour" scrawled on its side, has provided the tipping point to turn isolated unease and discontent into a national movement (see, Cindy, Don, and George: On Being in a Ditch at the Side of the Road by Tom Engelhardt).
As Harris concludes, Sheehan's lone voice has kick-started a chorus. Whether Bush agrees to her demand for a meeting, the political legacy left by her summer of protest will last far longer than the ramshackle tents of Camp Casey lining the roads outside Bush's ranch. If the media spotlight turns away tomorrow, as it likely will, Sheehan has given many others confidence that they didn't have before to speak out against the war. Finally, its OK in America to be anti-war, and that turnaround will help to put steel in the spines of politicians who have been fearful of getting out in front of the public in fighting the party of war.
The 1647 vigils last week in support of Cindy Sheehan demonstrated the antiwar movement's growing numbers, but with the attack on Sheehan and her supporters becoming increasingly vitriolic, it is important that the movement demonstrate the same degree of dedication and fearlessness as Sheenhan herself. Locally, Santa Monica's Peace Table is not waiting for MoveOn.Org and True Majority to call another action. They'll hold a Vigil for Cindy Sheehan & 4000+ Dead on Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the entrance to the Santa Monica Pier where thousands of people will be passing on their way to the summer concerts series. You can join them by showing up or send an email to PeaceTable@earthlink.net for more information.
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