As I read the accounts of Joan Baez's concert at Camp Casey my skin began to crawl. Why? Because Joan Baez is one of the prime icons of the anti-any-war left wing fringe that has been so effectively used to tar the Democratic Party since the 1960's.
Want to discredit a legitimate American hero like Cindy Sheehan? Just put Joan Baez at her side and show it ad nauseum on cable for the next 3 weeks.
Sound familiar? It should. Anyone remember the photo of John Kerry with Jane Fonda at a peace rally ? It paved the way for the Swifties to tap into the same vein of 60's backlash that is the foundation for the entire neocon movement.
What bugs me is that most Democrats and a whole lot of us who would legitimately call ourselves "liberals" (I defend death penalty cases for a living for chrissakes), would have willingly fought Hitler during WWII but would NEVER support lying murderous boondoggles like Vietnam or Iraq.
We're not antiwar. We're anti-THIS- war.
FLIP
This time around, Joan Baez and other 60's icons who believe in no wars should step aside. Cindy Sheehan has done a miraculous job of putting a face on this war that all Americans can finally understand, but tons of them do an immediate about-face the minute the Baez/Fonda/Peace-at-any-cost crowd gets into the act.