Remember Cindy Sheehan? She’s the angry mother and antiwar activist who basked briefly in the warm glow of media celebrity during the Bush administration because her soldier son had been killed by enemy fire in Iraq.
Last week, Sheehan announced her plans to run for governor of California in 2014. In a move that will surely endear her to citizens across The Golden State, she made the announcement at a “Democracy Convention” in Wisconsin.
A radical, far-left 501(c)(3) nonprofit called the Liberty Tree Foundation sponsored the event, reports Eagnews.org.
Attendees at the multi-day, anti-capitalist extravaganza included 2012 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein and Code Pink’s Medea Benjamin. Bryan Kennedy, the president of AFT-Wisconsin, also showed up. AFT-Wisconsin is union that represents some 17,000 public employees.
Sporting a snakeskin-themed Route 66 fleece, black sunglasses atop her head and a stringy pageboy haircut, Sheehan spoke to a small audience.
“I’m a socialist, and I’m not gonna be ashamed to say it. I’m up here saying, ‘I’m a socialist,'” the self-described 9/11 Truther proclaimed to a sad smattering of applause.
“One of my biggest inspirations is, umm, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela,” she said. “Yay, President Hugo.”
“The 14 years he was president dramatically improved the lives of Venezuelans.”
Inflation in Venezuela averaged over 20 percent annually during Chavez’s reign, according to ABC News. (The average rate across Latin America was under five percent.) Violence has also become rampant across Venezuela; the murder rate per 100,000 citizens nearly doubled in during the Chavez era.
Sheehan also discussed other topics including her belief that both Democrats and Republicans are terrible for authentic democracy.
“If you’re not happy, why do you keep voting for those assholes?” she asked. “Why are we only flooding capitols when there’s a Republican as a governor? My governor is a Democrat and he’s crappy. He’s an asshole!”
This exhortation concerning California Gov. Jerry Brown got some “uh huhs” from at least one unseen lady in the sparse crowd.
Sheehan then accused Brown of attempting to destroy several powerful unions in The Golden State.
The gubernatorial candidate also discussed her disillusionment with the Party of Barack Obama in some detail.
“I left the party because, in ’05, umm, you all know I camped out in front of George Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas and I feel like the organizations that are loyal to the Democratic Party lost there.”
Sheehan charged that the Democrats betrayed her cause immediately upon taking control of the House of Representatives in 2006.
“They used the antiwar movement and the energy of us all to regain Congress,” she said.
“My son was killed for oil,” the professional activist also said, apropos of little. “I just got finished riding my bike across the frickin’ United States to say that these, uhh, you know, our dependence on fossil fuels is destroying our country.”
At that point, Sheehan did not bother to explain how she had reached Wisconsin, or how she plans to go to California—roughly 2,000 miles away.
Sheehan notes that she was able to raise around $750,000 during a failed attempt to unseat Rep. Nancy Pelosi in 2008. She garnered a little over 16 percent of the vote as an independent candidate running on a platform that included single-payer health care, overturning all free trade agreements, repealing the Patriot Act, closing Guantanamo Bay and legalizing same-sex marriage.
She also ran spectacularly unsuccessfully for vice president of the United States in 2012 as Roseanne Barr’s running mate under the banner of the Peace and Freedom Party.
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