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Cindy Sheehan and the Peace Movement: Networks of Care and Rhetorical Exploits A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Amy Pason IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Ronald Walter Greene June 2010 © Amy Pason June 2010 i Acknowledgements When one chooses to become an academic (or activist), its often a choice that leads one to live as a nomad: remaining in a place long enough for one degree or one term teaching contracts, until moving on to the next institution. At times, it feels like you are on your own, knowing you will soon be uprooted and moving to the next location. At the same time, it requires you to be flexible, constantly reconfiguring your position within an ever changing network. This project would not be possible and certainly would not have manifested as it did without the network supporting me these past five years. It would be hard to thank all the various individuals who have influenced this work in direct and indirect ways, but a few key nodes deserve recognition here. I am grateful to my advisor, Ron Greene, not only for taking me on as an advisee, but for also offering theoretical inspiration for the project. Although my initial proposal to study “women‟s peace movements” is not directly in his research program, he had the insight to ensure Cindy was included and pointed me to reading The Exploit—at the time not knowing that Cindy and exploits would figure prominently in the project developed here. Patiently, he allowed me to explore, get tangled in, and find my way out of my project‟s web to the finished dissertation. I will always treasure Ed Schiappa‟s pragmatic advice with navigating this profession, and am thankful to have been part of Kirt Wilson‟s seminars—certainly my own approach to teaching and research has been influenced by his example. I give special thanks to Mary Vavrus, who joined my dissertation journey late, but offered invaluable support in the final stages. I also thank Bea Dehler for ensuring I found my way on campus, and helped me navigate paperwork, politics, and employment issues that accompany graduate school. Many times I found myself wondering why I kept working on this dissertation project when it seemed my own activism and research was heading in other directions. Yet, without my experiences with organizing collaboratives, this project would not have the same life. In particular, I thank my fellow Experimental College (EXCO) organizers for many hours of hard work and for allowing me to experience and build a distributed network dedicated to free and open education in the Twin Cities, with a ii special thanks to David Boehnke for his continued dedication to this cause. I learned the most from graduate students part of the Rethinking the University Conference collaborative, and am thankful to Isaac Kamola for not only reading and editing parts of the dissertation, but for listening to me work through portions of the project on an adventurous trip to Antioch College. Another thanks goes to Eli Meyerhoff—a key node in his own right—for keeping me connected to all the various collective initiatives spurred from the AFSCME 2007 Strike. My time at the University of Minnesota would have not been the same without the “endless meetings” in various coffee shops constituting these organizational efforts, which in turn became more about creating the university life we wanted to see. Although I physically must continue to move in this journey, I am grateful to all the continued collaborations and support from previous manifestations of my network. My colleagues at the University of Denver, especially my MA advisor, Darrin Hicks, have continued to support my journey to become an academic. I especially treasure continued collaborations with Kate Zittlow Rogness who I will always count on for pushing boundaries of feminist and rhetorical theory whether organizing a conference panel or over wine. I also thank Beth Bonnstetter who I credit with helping me keep sanity through the process by being a true confidant. The final push of my dissertation occurred while I was a visiting assistant professor at Minnesota State University, Mankato. I am thankful to my fellow faculty who supported and encouraged my writing, as well as giving me the opportunity to learn and grow in this position. It was only through attempting to teach graduate students to appreciate rhetorical criticism that I also learned to appreciate and better employ it in my own work. Cindy believes in fate, and I, too, believe fate guided me to Mankato. A special thanks to Kathy Steiner at MSU for showing me care and her continued service at MSU, without whom my job would have been overwhelming. In reflecting on my “ideal place to work,” I will always reference these individuals and my experience here. The number of friends who have supported me over the years is too numerous to give justice to here, and are best represented by events aiding me in my journey. I iii thank those who assisted moving me to better living conditions, who visited me when work made me a recluse, and who would phone to check in at times when I thought I was truly alone. I treasure friendships made by those who only knew me a short while, and my regular Monday night crew who always appreciated my company after teaching night classes. I know my truest friends are those who have gone out of their way to stay connected (and visited me) when I otherwise had less time to connect back. My lifelong friends, Adam Van Eeckhout and Meadow Stahl, particularly have given me support whether in always lending an ear, pushing my theoretical thinking, or grounding me to where I came from. Finally, I would not have been able to pursue my goals without the love and support of my family who will always be my “homebases” regardless of where my travels take me. Luckily, I have wonderful aunts and uncles (Mike, Judy, Ted, and Joanne) scattered about the country who take me in when I move to new locations, and a sister, Allison, who has a couch ready for when I come “home” to Denver. The project is ultimately dedicated to my parents, John and Patty Pason who have funded my education, have moved me across country, and who can always be reached when I most need care. iv Abstract Cindy Sheehan became the “face” of the peace movement during the Iraq War by camping outside of President Bush‟s Crawford Ranch in August 2005. This project explores the possibilities for resistance in the first US war of the Internet Age, specifically analyzing Sheehan‟s rhetorical acts (an open letter, camping, and her autobiography). Utilizing Galloway‟s and Thacker‟s network theory as social ontology and heuristic, resistance is defined through the concept of exploit, where, like computer viruses, movements use rhetorical forms to exploit norms of dominant systems to gain access, “recode” norms, or disrupt systems. Movements, employing distributed structures, work to “write code” or build new systems through a politics of the act. Sheehan‟s work is an extension of other women‟s peace movements that have employed networks and rhetorical acts to exploit otherwise exclusionary publics or build new systems. Tracing historical practices of rhetorical forms for their exploitive possibilities, Sheehan‟s rhetoric is analyzed against State constituted norms post-9/11, and following Butler and Faludi, I argue dominant discourse constructed norms of heightened patriotism, traditional gender (mother) roles, and fear after 9/11. Although Sheehan‟s open letter on the internet did not constitute a public tribunal as other women‟s letters, Sheehan‟s Camp Casey, initiated by the question of “What noble cause?,” spoke through post-9/11 norms while developing a peace movement network constituted through an ethics of care. Camp Casey posed a threat to State order by building a new system operating under care protocols that shifted power away from the State. Resistance and possibility for social change are rooted in changing affective relations, and Sheehan was attacked by Right-wing networks to question her motives and undermine care protocols. Sheehan uses her autobiography to combat the netwar waged by the Right in an attempt to maintain the peace movement. The current peace movement was strongest during Camp Casey where it fully utilized a distributed form, was constituted through an ethics of care, and gained popular support against a sovereign unable to respond or care for the public. Movements should consciously employ network logics, and understand affective dimensions of social change. v Table of Contents Chapter 1 Why Cindy? 1 Chapter 2 Social Change and Political Resistance through Networks 40 Chapter 3 Exploiting the Public: Cindy‟s Open Letter to George Bush 76 Chapter 4 A Campaign and a Camp: 107 Building the Movement Network in Crawford Chapter 5 Unmaking the Movement Through Netwar; 150 Rebuilding the Movement through Autobiography Chapter 6 The Struggle Continues: Affect in a Networked Age 194 Bibliography 216 1 IN ORDER TO HAVE A LARGE IMPACT, A MOVEMENT MUST BE GUIDED NOT JUST BY CONSCIOUS AND IMAGINATION, BUT ALSO BY AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE CONSTRAINTS AND POSSIBILITIES OF ITS HISTORICAL MOMENT; AND IT MUST PAY 1 SERIOUS ATTENION TO BUILDING LASTING ORGANIZATIONS. Why Cindy? In 2005, Cindy Sheehan‟s name evoked immediate familiarity. She is the mother who lost her son, Casey Sheehan, in the Iraq War.2 She became infamous for camping outside of President Bush‟s Crawford ranch, drawing thousands of supporters to join her in asking Bush “what noble cause” her son died for.