What if we had a multi-party, parliamentary government?

by: Anthony de Jesus

Mon Dec 01, 2008 at 11:08

On The Democratic Party, Building Coalitions, and Cindy Sheehan

by: Chris Bowers

Sat Jul 14, 2007 at 17:32

Sheehan, who has never held political office, recently said that she was leaving the Democratic Party because it "caved" in to the president. Last week, she announced her caravan to Washington, D.C., which she calls the "people's accountability movement."

Counterpunch, among other places, has the full text of Cindy Sheehan's letter on why she is leaving the Democratic Party.  The letter does not make it entirely clear that she ever was providing active support to the Democratic Party in the first place, especially when she write in the letter that "I knew having a Democratic Congress would make no difference in grassroots action." Still, I'll take her at her word, and go along with the claim that she was an active, supportive member of the Democratic Party, but has decided to leave it after the Democratic-controlled Congress capitulated by providing more, virtually blank-check, funding of the Iraq war. I am generally not a very skeptical person when it comes to other people, and I have no problem taking them at their word when it comes to claims like this.

Although I have not suffered a personal loss such as hers, I can also at least empathize with the anger and frustration that Sheehan feels at the passage of the funding bill. I was angry and frustrated when it happened, too. Still, my reaction was a little different than hers. Instead of moving about one hundred miles to a nearby congressional district and running a third party challenge against Steny Hoyer, or whoever, I decided to take out my frustrations by picking a fight with Third Way. At the time, I felt groups like Third Way were indirectly responsible for the failure of the 110th Congress to end the war. I know at this point that they are probably opposed to the war, and support redeployment, but I felt that the longstanding practice within certain segments of the Democratic coalition, such as Third Way, to distance themselves from the left had resulted in a situation where even a Congress with a Democratic majority would sometimes still pass right-wing legislation. So, I wrote a post, picked my fight, felt a little bit better for a few minutes, and began thinking about ways that the upcoming September funding fight could be waged more effectively.

(This lengthy post continues in the extended entry).