Sheehan & Schiavo

Last night Aaron Brown and Anderson Cooper sagely agreed that the scene surrounding the death of Terry Schiavo and the scene surrounding Mrs. Sheehan in Crawford are quite similar. Other than the presence of media and a controversial topic, they could provide no evidence in support of their observation. The practically perfect partner and we were in some disagreement about Aaron's easy analogy. The PPP felt that the true analogy was between Mrs. Schiavo and Casey Sheehan and the structural question was, "who may speak for the dead (or brain dead)." The media interest in the Schiavo case arose because of the conflict between two parties (parents and husband) we normally defer to socially and the effort of the church (and politicians willing to exploit religion) to resolve the conflict by an appeal to its own institutional authority (which appeal, presumably, would increase its own, admittedly fading, institutional authority).

The Sheehan case, accordingly, is not analogous to the Schiavo case, because there is no other party contending for the right to speak for Casey Sheehan whose claim we, as a society, would instinctively defer to. (Note, for the example, the revulsion Ms. Malkin's efforts to speak for Mr. Sheehan have aroused.) Thus the groups that oppose Mrs. Sheehan can only hope to silence her by demonizing her, but can't find a grieving family member to exploit for their own purposes as they did in the Schiavo case.

We disagree to a degree with the PPP. We think that the analogy is properly made between Mrs. Schiavo and Mrs. Sheehan. The issue is not who may speak for those who can't speak for themselves, but two competing visions of the cultural role of woman. Red Christians loved Mrs. Schiavo so much precisely because she didn't speak - which is what their idealized women do - which is to say, not participate as full members of the political order of their society. The venom the Red Christians directed at Mr. Schiavo arose not simply because he disagreed with their religious answers to end of life questions, but because as a husband, he attempted to honor his wife's wishes - that is to grant her the authority to make decisions for herself. Mr. Schiavo did not simply allow his wife's life to end in violation of divine law, for these folks, he gave support to the dangerous notion that women are capable of thinking, speaking and acting for themselves. And that their decisions deserve to be respected, even when they become incapable of effectuating them, themselves.

Mrs. Sheehan represents a nightmare vision of the feminine for the Reds. She is a woman who speaks for herself, claiming a right to participate in the political order on her own terms. And there is no man around who can silence her. About to be divorced and bereft or her son, she is utterly unconstrained by the social roles through which red men can control their women. And the problem is, no one denies what she says is true. Polls say that most Americans believe that the war in Iraq isn't worth it. Mrs. Sheehan says that the war in Iraq wasn't worth her son's life. Does anyone doubt that she is sincere in this belief? A minority of American's may disagree with her, but other than the keyboard commandos, who will be so tasteless as to say - "Hey, Mrs. Sheehan, it was worth it to me that your son died as I sit safely behind my computer urging on this bloody failure."

Which is why the Republicans are so freaked. Because Mrs. Sheehan is only speaking the truth as most Americans understand it. No wonder il Ducetto runs from her in his big black, smoked glass SUV, to the comfortable embrace of millionaire donors whose own sons and daughters will never hear a shot fired because of il Ducetto's anger. Like a spoiled child runs to his mother, il Ducetto runs to his donors - because he doesn't want the truth. He can't handle it. The delicious irony is that the more he runs from Mrs. Sheehan, the more Americans get to observe the political spectacle of a grieving mother attempting to speak the truth to a leader, whom the spectacle reveals, every night on tv, to be a frightened, childish man, terrified by the truth.