When Democrats Viciously Attacked Gold Star Mother Cindy Sheehan for Protesting Obama's Wars
Although there is no excuse for feuding with a Gold Star family like Trump is doing with Khizr Khan, Democrats might do well to remember the vicious treatment many in the party gave to Cindy Sheehan, whose son Casey was killed in Iraq, after Bush left office and Obama took charge. Maddeningly true to her principles, Sheehan kept right on protesting the wars. Suddenly the anti-war hero became to some Democrats an "attention whore."
To many Democrats, wars are alright if a Democrat starts one or is running it, not so a Republican.
Sheehan wrote in a widely circulated article at the Democratic party website DailyKos.com, before she was banned from posting:
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.
Unfazed, Sheehan's followers began to wear t-shirts emblazoned with "Attention Whore."
In 2007 Sheehan ran for Congress against Democrat Nancy Pelosi for her acting as a firewall between George Bush and impeachment. A sampling of the vitriol Sheehan received at Dailykos.com was:
Cindy, stop making your personal tragedy news.
Cindy, Kos was right to troll-rate you.
In fact, I think you should be banned from Daily Kos. You do a lot to help the Republicans and give the Republicans what they want to see...And stop making your personal tragedy front page news as if it's the only tragedy to come out of the Iraq War. Everytime time you step up to the mike in front of the camera, it's not about Iraq and it's not about your son. It's always about you.
Sheehan famously camped outside of George W. Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, demanding a meeting with Bush so she could ask him a question: "For what good reason did my son die in Iraq?" She continued to protest the Iraq War after Obama came into office, and criticized him for increasing drone attacks abroad, which are known to kill many civilians.
She once said Obama may have become an even worse "war criminal" than Bush. Sheehan is the author of "Peace Mom: A Mother's Journey through Heartache to Activism."