How the left can win.

• Author: Conniff, Ruth
• Position: Political Eye

Byron York, the extravagantly coiffed White House correspondent for the National Review, haunted the Campaign for America's Future "Take Back America" conference at the Washington Hilton in June. York specializes in keeping tabs on the left (or what he refers to, in arch quotation marks, as "progressives"). He has written a book chronicling "progressive" efforts to defeat Bush in 2004 entitled The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy: The Untold Story of How Democratic Operatives, Eccentric Billionaires, Liberal Activists, and Assorted Celebrities Tried to Bring Down a President--and Why They'll Try Even Harder Next Time.

On the first day of the conference there was an awkward moment at a press briefing when a reporter from In These Times, not realizing that York was in the room, asked Campaign for America's Future co-director Roger Hickey what he thought of York's book. "If only it were true" that there's a vast leftwing conspiracy, Hickey said.

York sat at the back of the room tapping away impassively on his laptop, as necks craned to get a glimpse of his reaction.

As it turned out, York's view of the conference (posted on National Review online) was a characteristic mix of eye-rolling sarcasm and pretty solid analysis.

At least York takes his enemy--"progressives"--seriously enough to actually attend events like the Campaign for America's Future conference, and even offers some useful criticism: that the left talks to itself too much, that we believe our own hype, as when many bought into the idea that the movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was convincing red-state voters to throw out George W. Bush. (The most impressive part of York's book is his dissection of box-office receipts that showed the movie mostly played to the already persuaded.) And, of course, there's the Right's favorite analysis of the Left: that depending on billionaire donors and celebrities does not help the Democratic Party connect with the American people.

That last point does not belong to York, though.

For my money, the best speaker at the "Take Back America" conference was progressive political dynamo and whiz kid Eli Pariser of MoveOn.org, who talked about how the Democrats can and must break their cycle of dependence on big donors whose interests conflict with those of their base. Democratic candidates won't please anyone so long as they preach populism in elections and then vote for atrocious legislation like the bankruptcy bill. The hypocrisy of trying to appeal to a base of...