shawa
CNO
Joined: 03 Sep 2004
Posts: 2004
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 Posted: Wed Apr 06, 2005 12:08 am Post subject: WATCH THE VLWC--Byron York |
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Byron York's new book, The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy has some interesting analysis of what is ahead.
| Quote: | April 05, 2005, 7:46 a.m.
Watch the VLWC
Byron York warns against underestimating the Lefts new machinery.
Today the book literally on the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy is unveiled. National Review's Byron York is author of The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: The Untold Story of How Democratic Operatives, Eccentric Billionaires, Liberal Activists, and Assorted Celebrities Tried to Bring Down the President and Why They'll Try Even Harder Next Time.
As you can imagine, he's got a lot of George Soros, some Al Franken and Michael Moore, but even more so, the strategic planners behind MoveOn, America Coming Together, and that oh-so-riveting Air America. Don't let the ZZZZ Factor of Air America fool you.
As Byron writes, "Today's Left is bigger and better funded than conservatives were decades ago, and though Democrats did not win in 2004, this left-wing movement and the foundation of new institutions on which it rests seems poised to exert even more influence in coming campaigns." "By 2008," he writes, "they will be even better organized and far stronger."
NRO Editor Kathryn Lopez asked her colleague a few Matt Lauer-style hard-hitting questions about his new book.
Byron York notes, though, that no reading of this Q&A is complete without buying the book.
National Review Online: Byron, are you trying to distract the American people from your husbands impending impeachment or laying the fundraising groundwork for your run for Senate? Why do you need to demonize the Left with a conspiracy label?
Byron York: While conservatives were perhaps paying too little attention, the phrase "Vast Left Wing Conspiracy" has become a kind of shorthand on the Left for the biggest, richest, and most focused political movement in generations.
MoveOn.org, George Soros, the 527 groups, Michael Moore, Al Franken and Air America, John Podesta's Center for American Progress, and other individuals and organizations are self-consciously building a new political infrastructure a well-funded message machine which they plan to use to inject new ideas into the national conversation, attack enemies, and spark political action.
Unlike the conservative movement, which grew up over decades, they are trying to do it all virtually instantly and in many ways, they have succeeded. The book is their story.
As for the specific phrase a variation on Hillary Rodham Clinton's famous charge that there was a "vast right wing conspiracy" against Bill Clinton here's what Franken said last month about his work with Air America radio: "I think it's a counterpoint to [the Right] and to the administration and to just the whole right-wing echo machine. We're trying to just be part of this vast left wing conspiracy..."
As another example, at last year's Democratic convention in Boston, a group of young activists put on a program called "Building the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy." And as far back as 2001, the liberal online magazine Slate published an article entitled, "Wanted: A Vast Left Wing Conspiracy." There are plenty of other examples to show that the Left actually kind of likes the phrase.
That's not really surprising. Remember back in 1998, when Mrs. Clinton first used "vast right wing conspiracy"? Conservatives loved it. You couldn't go to a party without someone saying, "Well, it looks like the whole conspiracy is here." Well, the left-wing variation is being heard more and more these days.
NRO: Is it a problem for the Left that MoveOn basically had no purpose, as you tell their tale, pre-9/11? That so much of the Lefts new organization is based on being antiwar? And some of it, specifically against the war in Afghanistan, which Americans were generally united behind?
York: MoveOn's problem was that it was founded for a very specific purpose to oppose the Clinton impeachment and then it could not move on itself. After Clinton was impeached, MoveOn tried to punish the impeachers, and they hung on to that mission so long that, after the 2000 election, they seemed like the last Japanese soldiers on the island. But then they learned how to transform themselves.
After September 11, they suddenly found a new purpose, becoming in essence an antiwar organization. First they opposed the war in Afghanistan, which, as you say, had nearly universal American support, and then they opposed the war in Iraq when they helped create the group Win Without War. Later, they became an anti-Bush campaign ad organization.
Now, they're transforming themselves again, joining the fight to filibuster Bush judicial nominees and oppose Social Security reform. When that no longer works, they'll do something else.
The thing to remember about MoveOn is that even though it has at times had a large membership sometimes topping 2.5 million its essentially radical nature makes it unlikely to expand its appeal beyond the hard-core Democratic base. Remember that nearly 60 million people voted for John Kerry. Some part of that group, perhaps 25 percent, could be called the truest, bluest, anti-Bush faction. That's nearly 15 million people. And inside that 15 million people, there was MoveOn.
For all the attention it received, and all its claims to represent the "true majority" of the American people, MoveOn simply never expanded beyond the confines of the true believers.
NRO: A related question: America Coming Together and the like were sorta overconfident their attitude seemed to be, if you said you were the majority, the majority would come. They were speaking to other left-wing activists' e-mail lists and the like, not reaching out to new people. Are these groups too out there to really drive electoral victories to the Democrats?
York: In the book, I make a distinction between the emotional wing of the movement MoveOn, Michael Moore, and others and the professional wing, which includes America Coming Together and the Center for American Progress. The emotional wing is given to outbursts like MoveOn's antiwar ads or Moore's statement that he couldn't understand why the September 11 terrorists attacked New York City, since so many New Yorkers had voted for Al Gore that confine them to the margins.
But the professionals are more disciplined, and in the future they will be working hard to make their message seem more mainstream. They are smart and extremely well-funded, and, depending on the mistakes made by Republicans in the future, they could well win in years to come because, as the book shows, the extraordinary infrastructure they have built makes them a political force to be reckoned with.
NRO: What do you expect the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy to look like come 2008? How key is it that the likes of Barack Obama are lending them their creds?
York: What is perhaps most....... |
Continued at:
http://www.nationalreview.com/york/york200504050746.asp
_________________
I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death. (Thomas Paine, 1776) |
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