November 29, 2005

Drinking Liberally: An Idea Whose Time Has Come

Drinking Liberally is an organization which describes itself thusly:
An informal, inclusive Democratic drinking club. Raise your spirits while you raise your glass, and share ideas while you share a pitcher. Drinking Liberally gives like-minded, left-leaning individuals a place to talk politics. You don't need to be a policy expert and this isn't a book club - just come and learn from peers, trade jokes, vent frustration and hang out in an environment where it's not taboo to talk politics.

Bars are democratic spaces - you talk to strangers, you share booths, you feel the bond of common ground. Bring democratic discourse to your local democratic space - build Democracy one drink at a time.
I'd drink to that. How about you?

Amazingly, there's no local chapter established as yet. If anyone is interested in starting one, the how-to is found here.

Let's discuss it here and get this ball rolling. I think it would be a fun time, and I'm optimistic we can avoid throwing chairs, pulling hair, or decking each other.

I think it would foster a little more brother and sisterhood amongst local Dems, progressives, or others to the left side of the political spectrum. It's hard to really loath someone who buys you a drink, at least for a few hours.

And if someone just bores the life out of you or annoys you to the point where you want to scratch your own eyes out, you could always migrate to another part of the room or cloister yourself in a booth where they can't get to you.

I bet with a little social lubrication, things would go well. A plus would be that it wouldn't be an organized party event, thus it wouldn't be in a florescent lit room with folding chairs, stale carrot and celery trays or donuts and day old coffee from styrofoam cups, which oddly, since this seems to be the preferred forum for Dem meetings, isn't very condusive to discussion or camaraderie.

Any ideas for a good meeting spot? Preferably someplace affordable and comfortable.

Ideas? Volunteers? Let's see if we can get this going.

3 Comments:

At 11/29/2005 3:39 PM, Blogger QuadCityImages said...

I'd definitely be willing to attend something like this, although I believe my Independent status disqualifies me from starting one.

 
At 11/29/2005 4:08 PM, Blogger The Inside Dope said...

That damned independent status. haha. Well, at least it won't prevent you from attending if we get this going.

Reminds me of the title of one of Texan Jim Hightower's books, "There's nothing in the middle of the road but white stripes and dead armadillos."

 
At 11/29/2005 7:52 PM, Blogger The Inside Dope said...

This is depressing. I guess there's no Dems/liberals/progressives within the sound of my voice that has any interest in meeting other like-minded people socially.

Not good. Anyone out there?

 

Post a Comment

<< Home