Wednesday, February 01, 2006
Cindy Sheehan and Hugo Chavez and attacking the United States from abroad
I wasn't going to write about Cindy Sheehan's choice in tourist destinations, but Susan Paynter, an apparently left-of-center columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer who is obviously struggling to be moderate in tone, has. In her gentle knocking of Ms. Sheehan, Paynter reveals that she really does not understand that there is a huge difference between domestic protest and campaigning abroad against the United States.Last week, Sheehan traveled to Venezuela to swap spit with Hugo Chavez, the most vocal and popular anti-American outside of the Muslim world. Paynter thinks that Sheehan "went too far" during her visit when she agreed with Harry Belafonte's widely-repeated claim that George Bush is the "greatest terrorist in the world."
This is closing the barn door after the donkeys have left. Cindy Sheehan says nutty stuff all the time. She even agreed last summer that Bush was a terrorist. Paynter either doesn't use Google or she thinks that Sheehan only "went too far" when she upgraded Bush from a mere terrorist to the "greatest in the world."
Paynter's gooey internationalism blinds her to the real atrocity here.
While I think that Cindy Sheehan is both extreme and sort of stupid -- a dangerous combination -- her demonstrations in Crawford and other domestic gestures are at least aimed at her conception of a constructive purpose. Ostensibly, she is trying to get the Bush administration to change its policy in Iraq, however counterproductive she has become in her arguments and tactics (even the far left is beginning to get this -- if you doubt me, read this comment thread from AMERICABlog last night).
But that motive cannot explain why she would vent her rage in Venezuela in the company of Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro's new best friend. Whatever one thinks of George Bush, denouncing him as a terrorist on Hugo Chavez' turf is not going to influence his policy in Iraq -- it is nothing but a rank expression of anti-Americanism from a foreign capital. There are only two reasons that I can imagine for such an outburst. First, Cindy enjoys the company of such people, seeks their adulation, and has figured out that bashing the United States is a great way to get fawned over in Venezuela. Second, she is trying to hurt the prestige and degrade the influence of the United States in the world. There is nothing patriotic in either motive.
So, even under the left's expansive definition of "patriotism," which seems to permit any outrageous act of politics as long as its purpose is to change American policy or elect Democrats, there is no defense for saying these things from abroad. You simply can't go to another country and suck up to the locals by going out of your way to attack the United States and be patriotic by any meaning of the word. You can't claim to be a patriot if you do that at a private dinner party in Paris, over drinks in Davos, or on radio at the invitation of Hugo Chavez.
If I were an unreconstructed liberal columnist who had decided that Cindy Sheehan had recently crossed some line, it would not be that she went from calling the president a terrorist to calling him "the greatest terrorist in the world." No. We have long known where Cindy Sheehan stands on that question. If we must find some new line that she has crossed, it is the border of the United States.
7 Comments:
By 
Cardinalpark, at
Wed Feb 01, 08:10:00 AM:
I'm just glad they threw her out of Congress last night for the SOTU.
She should be deported.
By Charlottesvillain, at
Wed Feb 01, 03:25:00 PM:
She'll be showing up in Cuba any day now, no doubt.
By Charlottesvillain, at
Wed Feb 01, 05:28:00 PM:
And I don't care who you are. You don't visit a head of state, even a dictator, wearing a farookin T-shirt. No class.
By 
, at
Wed Feb 01, 09:50:00 PM:
So the first amendment is not important?
Is the constitution (as the founders intended) not still valid?
Sheehan's son died protecting her right to speak out. Have some respect for our system of goverment.
DRS
By , at
Wed Feb 01, 10:49:00 PM:
DRS,
Simply because one has the right to do something, doesn't make it the right thing to do.
By TigerHawk, at
Thu Feb 02, 06:06:00 AM:
Precisely, Jim. Nobody is saying that her conduct isn't lawful. I'm just saying that in this case, at least, it isn't patriotic.
Why do I bother speculating about the patriotism of Cindy Sheehan? Because it has become a favorite tactic of the squishy left to claim that anybody who criticizes them is "questioning their patriotism." Nine times out of ten, this is a complete straw man -- nobody (or nobody of consequence) has in fact questioned the patriotism of, say, Jack Murtha. This "straw man" attack by the left has chilled sensible discussion about the value of patriotism, because nobody wants to be seen as "questioning" it. Screw it. I've decided to engage the issue. Certain kinds of actions are unpatriotic. I think I'm drawing the line in a pretty uncontroversial way by saying that if you leave the country, consort with the dictator of another country, and attack your own from his capital, you are not patriotic. However lawful your conduct may be.
By Cardinalpark, at
Fri Feb 03, 08:57:00 AM:
Sheehan is a disgrace to her son, an utter disgrace. His life was about honor, duty, commitment, love of freedom. Her life is about self-indulgence. As the father said, Cindy Sheehan doesn't speak for her son's family.
