Cindy Sheehan, Ex-Democrat

Well, it's sort of a Memorial Day story—Cindy Sheehan has up and quit the Democratic Party.

Congratulations Congress, you have bought yourself a few more months of an illegal and immoral bloodbath. And you know you mean to continue it indefinitely so "other presidents" can solve the horrid problem BushCo forced our world into.

It used to be George Bush's war. You could have ended it honorably. Now it is yours and you all will descend into calumnious history with BushCo.

The Camp Casey Peace Institute is calling all citizens who are as disgusted as we are with you all to join us in Philadelphia on July 4th to try and figure a way out of this "two" party system that is bought and paid for by the war machine which has a stranglehold on every aspect of our lives. As for myself, I am leaving the Democratic Party. You have completely failed those who put you in power to change the direction our country is heading. We did not elect you to help sink our ship of state but to guide it to safe harbor.

Philadelphia's arguably a better place to start a new third party than Gary, Indiana where Amiri Baraka and co. tried to launch the National Black Political Party, 35 years ago. But I'd bet this effort gets even less traction. The Democratic Party of 1972 contained a huge black base that had only entered the party en masse eight years earlier, fleeing from the pitchforks (real or imagined) of the Goldwaterites, and it contained a shrinking Dixiecrat wing that included George Wallace, Lester Maddox, and millions of Southern conservatives. The Democratic Party of 2007 contains an anti-Iraq War wing, which includes almost all living Democrats, and a pro-Iraq War wing, which includes Michael Totten, the ghost of Scoop Jackson, and a third or so of The New Republic's editorial staff. (Joe Lieberman doesn't count as he—ever hilariously—represents the Connecticut for Lieberman Party.) Seven years on from Ralph Nader, anti-war liberals simply aren't going to abandon the Democratic Party.

Reason's articles and blog posts on Sheehan here; articles about third parties here.