Yet when Republican politicians went after Clinton, they did so with the support of a vast network of think tanks, magazines, newspapers and cable TV pundits ready to buttress and amplify them. Democrats don't have that backup. A sustained political attack on Bush, says Brock, "probably does require some of this infrastructure building. It's too much for elected politicians to handle." Schakowsky made a similar point, exhorting the crowd, "Become part of a progressive echo chamber. When the Republicans go after Tom Daschle or Nancy Pelosi for being unpatriotic when they criticize the president, Fox News and Rush Limbaugh begin spinning the same line. We need to push back, writing letters to the editor, calling talk shows, e-mailing Congress, e-mailing Sean Hannity and telling him he's out of line, calling them un-American for stifling dissent."

In other words, fury at George Bush won't do any good unless it's organized and channeled into political institution building. "There are two things you can do with anger," says Barber. "One thing is just to vent it. The other, better thing is to sublimate that rage and anger into a higher purpose. That secures your base and turns on the rest of the country."

That means instead of ranting against Bush, progressives need to calmly and forcefully expose the effects his policies will have on real people -- while building institutions to support better ones. "Our task over the next 18 months is not to ridicule George Bush, but to get the George Bush story to the American voters over and over again," said John Sweeney, president of the AFL-CIO. "There has to be a patient investment of capital," says Brock. "The right worked on school vouchers for 19 years. What if an independent think tank had been working on healthcare for years before Bill Clinton was elected? Perhaps the political culture would be more receptive."

While Brock says it takes time to change the political culture, he believes efforts like Podesta's "are going to have a pretty huge effect rather quickly, because they're filling a void. I think that's why there's so much excitement."

Perhaps they're overly optimistic, but many progressives believe that Bush's popularity may be reaching a tipping point -- and that all they need to do is nudge people along. Bush's continued support, says Begala, rests on two things. "His principal claim is that there's a national security crisis, which there is. His second claim is that he's basically an honest man. If he loses that, it's over for him. The problem is that he doesn't tell the truth."

So far, he's gotten away with it -- which further stokes liberal antipathy. To understand why people continue to believe him, says Begala, it's important to understand cognitive dissonance. "There have been a lot of studies on how people deal with cognitive dissonance. The first reaction is to say, No! Bullshit! The second is to attack the source [of the information], which is why it's risky for Democrats to attack Bush. But if you can persuade people, they will reevaluate their beliefs and look for a way that they don't have to feel stupid." Only at that point, he says, will they really get mad at Bush for deceiving them.

In the meantime, many at the conference said it's counterproductive to attack the Democrats for not being as mean as the Republicans. "We've got to put our passion into whoever is going to beat George Bush," says Robert Borosage, co-director of the Campaign for America's Future. In the next election, he says, "You will see a unified Democratic Party. George Bush has unified them. When you have a threat like George Bush, it makes everybody pragmatic."

Yet cold pragmatism can be as self-defeating as unchecked hate. "Passion drives politics," Borosage says. "No broader campaign is going to win without a clear and angry exposé of where Bush is trying to take this country."

Recent Stories