Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

I am confused by the reviewers of this book who act as if "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy" was a polemical attack on leftist ideology. Liberal reviewers denounce the book, and some conservative reviewers are gloating about it. Did we read the same book?

Byron York's "The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy" is a detailed political analysis of the Left's unprecedented organization in the 2004 election. The most committed elements of the American Left came together like never before to defeat George W. Bush. Independent activists like George Soros, Michael Moore, MoveOn.org, America Coming Together, Air America, and the Center for American Progress emerged and circumvented the traditional party structure in order to ensure Bush's defeat.

In spite of the money and effort poured into the cause, Bush, of course, won the race by 3 percent. York's diagnosis is that the new players -- MoveOn, ACT, etc. -- essentially were preaching to the choir, while the whole time thinking they were forging a broad, national, anti-Bush consensus.

Drawing from interviews with key operatives, York documents the inside story of the 527s and other new groups that emerged in 2004. He demonstrates how MoveOn.org grew from an idea into a powerhouse of the Left; how America Coming Together grew out of MoveOn; how George Soros became interested, got involved, and legitimated MoveOn and ACT; and how these fringe groups found themselves at the center of the Democrats' run for the presidency. He also documents how these groups stretched the campaign finance law that they had so vigorously supported.

But the scary part is this: York, a columnist for National Review, notes that in the wake of conservative icon Barry Goldwater's landslide defeat to Lyndon Johnson, conservatives took decades to build the institutions of the conservative movement that we know and love today (a network of think tanks, grassroots issue-based groups, talk radio shows, etc.). Now, the 2004 election could be for liberals what that 1964 election was for conservatives: a turning point. But conservatives took decades to overcome the Democratic majority (at least in Congress). Conservatives today don't have that big a majority and the Dems are nevertheless organizing to re-establish a sizeable political majority of their own. Just today (8/7/05), there was a Washington Post story about rich liberals pouring money into creating new "progressive" think tanks.

"The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy" is a warning for conservatives, one which they would be wise to take seriously.

This book is a fascinating look behind the scenes look at the Democratic Party's efforts to unseat President Bush in the 2004 election. But, the slightly hysterical title aside, the book is as objective as one could hope. It discusses how the Democratics, frustrated with being out of power in Congress, the White House, their anger at the Clinton impeachment and the 2000 election results attempted to regroup. Using a copy of Karl Rove's "get out the vote" plan they attempted to regroup and energize the American voter to their way of thinking. What they came up with was the Moveon.Org internet site, 527's (several of which, the author argues, ignored campaign finance laws), the movie Fahrenheit 9/11, Liberal talk radio and think tanks. What I found especially interesting was the author's contention that when all was said and done the people behind it all were talking to the choir and made little impact on anyone outside their "loop". For example, the hype (and the box office) indicated that Fahrenheit 9/11 was a phenomenal success and it was expected to go a long way to defeat President Bush. But by breaking down the by region box office York is able to show that the film was really only popular in the areas (and with audiences) that weren't going to go for the President anyway. It made no impact in the swing states. During the election Moveon.org was so popular that they people behind it thought they were touching the average American. It turns out they weren't and were, in fact, only talking with other similar minded people. (Interesting, this same "talking for the average American" is something Richard Poe talks about in his book "Hillary's Secret War: The Clinton Conspiracy to Muzzle Internet Journalists". I wondered as I read this if both sides are wrong and they are both talking to their respective choirs. But I digress). The think tanks started were very limited in scope (seemingly dedicated to only defeating the President instead of developing new strategies that aren't necessarily tied to any particular political party -as the more successful Conservative think tanks have done and what the Democratics were trying to duplicate). While they raised unprecedented sums of money in a losing effort, they've changed the way they're looking at political campaigns and will attempt to strengthen and sharpen these new tools for future elections. Republicans should be prepared.

I'm someone who is fascinated by the human capacity for nonrational thinking, mob behavior, self-delusion, and the success of well-engineered social movements. If you are a student of human behavior, particularly of how social movements are packaged and sold, and how ideologies can spread like diseases through a population, you'll find this book insightful and illuminating. The title of the book is more provocative than the material inside, which is well-researched and not particularly inflammatory (except to the most thin-skinned among us). The book chronicles how the American Left is re-making itself to become competitive in today's highly communicated and regulated political world. It could be viewed as diagnostic and prescriptive for both Left and Right, in the great competition for hearts and minds that defines modern American politics. My favorite chapter was the one the author almost left out: "From Fringe to Mainstream." This chapter captures how unimportant and irrelevant actual evidence is in demonizing one's political enemies, showing how accusations are virtually as good as evidence when denigrating the other side. "If it might possibly be true, then it most probably is true," seems to be the creedo of the modern viralized ideologue. Also fascinating is how humans feel they can plumb their opponent's inner psychology--in the absence of any formal training--discovering that the opposition is perpetually driven by sickness and evil impulse, while the motives of "my side" are pure and honest and moral. This book is certain to increase the cynicism of all readers, whether from Left or Right. And that's not a bad thing. Our republic depends upon our citizens' ability to recognize and resist emotional manipulation, which this book chronicles in fascinating and informed detail.

It's written from a critical, conservative perspective, but despite its sensationalist title, it's clever, well researched, and doesn't drastically trash anyone. Get a grip, guys. Read the thing before you start shrieking. Otherwise you look....well....dumb. There are LOTs of books and authors out there worth attacking. (Books by, say, Ann Coulter, John E. O'Neill, Brent Bozell and Mark Levin, to name a few.)

This isn't one of them.

Note to reviewers - the title of the book was a play on Hillary claiming that there was a "vast right wing conspiracy" against her husband in the Monica scandal - she and others stridently argued that the attacks on her husband were due to a right wing conspiracy (right up until the stains on the little black dress ruined everything).

This is an excellent non-polemical book that sets out the steps taken by the left to unseat Bush. I watched from Canada and monthly visits to the US (business) and the book accurately reflects what was going on (rightly or wrongly) at the time.

It describes how a loose linkage of the media, Hollywood, pop stars, MoveOn.org (Soros), academia, Kerry spinmeisters and the intelligentsia on the left and right coasts self organized to bring down Bush and the GOP.

It is a good read and ties together many of the disparate threads into a reasonably accurate picture. Perhaps the book can be faulted - hence only 4 stars - because there certainly was strident activity on the right too. Limbaugh, Hannity and O'Reilly, of course, doing their thing although not with the power of the mainstream media and Hollywood behind them.

For me the interesting theme he points out is the self organizing nature of the endeavour driven by an almost irrational loathing of Bush. Recall many Hollywood gliterrati threatening to move to Canada if Bush was elected.

I'm editorializing here - but it does seem strange that some reviewers - notably one from the UK - use this site as a platform for gross anti-US, anti-Bush remarks rather than taking the time to actually critique the book in question.

Byron York in his book The Vast Left Wing Conspiracy gives an account of the measures the Far Left took to defeat George W. Bush in the 2004 election. York spends a chapter discussing each of the major outlets of what he describes as "The Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy", a play on Hillary Rodham Clinton's famous "Right-Wing Conspiracy" statement. There are chapters on George Soros, MoveOn.org, America Coming Together, Air America Radio, and, of course, Fahrenheit 9/11. The book is a good read for both conservatives and liberals, who will find it interesting how the Right views the above-mentioned institutions.
One would expect York to dedicate much of the book to argue with the ideas presented by these groups, and he does spend one chapter doing this, where he debunks the myth that the Republicans want to turn the US into a theocracy. Most of the book, however, deals with how these organizations got started and the mistakes they made in how they marketed themselves to the people.
The purpose of the book is not merely a way for conservatives to gloat over their win in 2004. Rather, York wants to make the reader aware of how much the Left accomplished in just 18 months and that given four years to prepare for the next election, they will be far more organized will be in a better position to affect the results. The book loses its fifth star for me since it spends too much time with some of the minor elements of the "Conspiracy", such as the documentaries "Outfoxed" and "Uncovered" and not enough time on the things the reader might be more interested in, such as Fahrenheit 9/11. His concluding chapter, which contains one of the key points of the book, is way too short.

Byron York is a masterful writer. The subject matter that he has written about is one that I find rather banal. When I started the book I thought I won't finish this, why bother, this won't keep my attention. But guess what, the material didn't the writer did.

I am not saying the material was wrong or incorrect, heavens no. I was just more enamored at how the pages flew by with this young man's prose. Given a topic that I enjoyed and I would become a raving fanatical fan of this writer.

Anyhow, the book is scary showing how the left wing has gone from the organized academia and intelligentsia to today being THE billionaire and millionaire boys funding club.

The left's organized use of 527's and the fact that 92% of all donations of $ 1 million dollars or larger go to democratic causes should shout loud and clear just who is the party of the elites and money. I'll give you a hint - it ain't the republicans.

You also get a look at how the media portrays their darlings like Michael Moore and Robert Greenwald- movies that were basically unwatched yet received glowing reviews, and more press pre gross dollar sales than any movie in history.

One of the greatest chapters is Mr. Yorks analysis of John Podesta. Mr. York has summed up the current Democratic Party's main problem in one sentence many other people have said the same thing myself included but nobody is listening. I find it mystifying that the Republicans are actually telling the Democrats what their problem is over and over and over again and yet they never hear it. Well I will quote Mr. York one more time

"The bottom line was that Podesta was arguing that his party's problems were mostly related to communications, not content."

"Podesta keeps saying, What's our bumper sticker?" (referring to a quick idea that simple to communicate)
"The problem is not the bumper sticker. The problem is the car."

Amen Mr. York, you preach it.

The saddest chapter of the book is Chapter Eight where Mr. York talks about the strange life of the Theocratic Conspiracy theorist. If you have never met one of these people you are lucky. Envision the most radical preacher you can multiply them by ten but they are now a anti-preacher, filled with hatred against any Christian. These people exist and they are growing quickly, they seem to have some sort of metaphysical hatred against anybody whom might call themselves a Christian and right wing. All you need to do is search Amazon for book about right wing and religion and you will be shocked. These people would burn the late Mother Theresa at the stake if the could.

A highly enjoyable author with magnificent penmanship skills; I highly recommend this book and will look forward for more of Mr. Yorks work.

This book does an excellent job at looking how the Democratic Party attempted to win the 2004 election.The only thing I fault this book for is the title.The Democrats in no way carried out a conspiracy.They took on the task of winning and tried everything they could.In both the book and some reviews a few felt that the Democrats had no right to even try,but that is nothing but sour grapes and in no way suggested by the author or anyone responsible in either party.A good,no-holds-barred fight ,using any legal tactic or approach,is what should be attempted and the voters should expect nothing less.I don't think the author suggested anything else really took place by either side.What the author does show is what the Democrats tried and in spite of a Hurculean effort and on top of feeling they had done enough and had even convinced themselves they were going to win and easily; they lost the Congress,the Senate and the White House.This time there was no debate other than in spite of all their effort,the big question is why did they fail so badly.
This book covers every aspect of the campaigns but mainly deals with the fight for the White House and I think the author shows that Kerry vs Bush ended up being what the whole election was about.
The Dems didn't lose due to a lack of Money,they had plenty.
The Author didn't talk about the Debates.Just about everybody feels Kerry did better,is probably a better debater,but winning an Election is about a lot more than winning a Debate.
The author did a terrific job on Michael Moore's movie Fahrenheit 9/11.He convinced me that this movie was not the great asset that the Left Wingers had convinced themselves it was.He shows it mainly had an impact on the already converted and little impact on the swing vote,and even that may have been a negative factor to the Democrats.He gives excellent numbers on performance on from all over North America.It was interesting to see that several of the best numbers came from Canadian cities and most of the other best results came from the more heavily left wing populated areas.In other words the already converted.I don't doubt that Kerry would have easily beaten Bush if the countries in Europe and Canada could have voted.That anti America and anti Bush dribble the Democrats take such great comfort in, has no impact on election day,except a negative impact to voters of the center.
The author talks a lot about the Attack on 9/11.He shows how the Democrats and Soros in particular,didn't see it as all that devastating and that Bush's reaction was an irresponsible reaction.The voters felt otherwise and showed it on Election Day.
The nastiness of portraying Bush as stupid,comparable to Nazis and Hitler probably cost them a lot of votes from the center and clearly seen as 'beyond of the pale'.The party's excuse that it "slipped through our screening process" didn't hold any water.Calling Conservative press "digital brownshirts" was another Leftist masterpiece.
The author covers it all in this book and in the end only confirms what more than a majority of the voters had decided after the long detailed and partisian campaign by both parties.They believed that Bush and his party ,rather than Kerry and his party were the ones they preferred to handle the Nations security and more closely reflected their views.
There are probably a lot of Democrats who disagree with the author,but facts speak for themselves.

Devoted entirely to coming to Amazon to trash conservative books? I see the same names here I saw for Kate O'Bierne's book, Tony Blankley's book, Michelle Malkin's books, David Limbaugh's books...you get the idea. And most of your reviews say almost the exact same thing, too. You'd think SOME of you would aim for creativity, especially when you're accusing Republicans of being mindless automatons.

That said, York's research is impeccable, and anyone who paid attention to the last Presidential election knows EXACTLY how hard George Soros, Hollywood, et al. worked to push Kerry through, from Cameron Diaz's teary "If you want rape to be legal, don't vote" lunacy on Oprah to the dollars moveon.org spent demonizing the Swiftboat vets. No one works harder than the Left to silence dissenting opinion and hide the truth. It's because of books like this one, conservative talk radio, and Fox News that conservatives finally have a voice in this country, and the left hasn't had to debate for so long, they've forgotten how.

To anyone looking for truthful, incisive commentary on how far the Left has gone to demonize and destroy Bush, how much time, money, and effort they've wasted to obstruct him at every turn, regardless of whether the policy in question would benefit the country, this is an excellent book. If you're a mind-numbed leftist automaton that opposes everything purely on unquestioning ideological grounds--well, I guess I'll be seeing your reviews on the next conservative bestseller, won't I?

Byron York is one of my favorite writers because he reports. No diatribes. No insults. No hysterics. He just reports facts and when he gives his opinions, they are never overstated. There is no name-calling (The title is a quote from the liberal activists who are the subject of the book.) and no conclusions without supporting facts. In fact, York respects his readers enough to let them draw their own conclusions most of the time.

If you think that the campaign reform laws took money out of politics, you really need to read this book. Unfortunately, most of what they did was take political parties out of politics and make them more politically beholden to groups who now control most of the money spent in campaigns and can therefore dictate the policies of the parties, who have heretofore made their own policies and run on them. Having positions and platforms imposed by big money donors was supposed to be why campaign finance reform was needed, but expecting politicians to support such laws without a loophole in reserve shows incredible naivete. The loophole the Democrats were counting on may end up turning into a sinkhole that consumes them or imprisons them for years to come.

I have found plenty of authors and radio and TV hosts all across the political spectrum who will shout accusations, hurl epithets and insults and state opinions as facts, but it is a rare one who can simply report details in as clear and cogent a manner as Mr. York. I wish all political books were as well written and reasonable as this one.