we might be laughing a bit too loud / ah, but that never hurt no one

I just can’t believe all the things people say. – Controversy.
Am I black or white? Am I straight or gay? – Controversy.
Do I believe in god? Do I believe in me? – Controversy,
Controversy, Controversy.

– Prince, “Controversy”

Creating a controversy, I’ve learned, is like writing humor. You can’t do it if you try too hard; it only happens when you’re just surfing, sailing along, being yourself. Suddenly, out of the clear blue sky, there it is.

We’ve recently received some negative feedback about Drinking Liberally. Not much—and nothing compared to the positive feedback we’ve received—but some. The Democrats who complained expressed shock and horror, cited drunk-driving statistics, and said we were an embarrassment.

Now, we at Panhandle Truth Squad would never deny the fact that we are an embarrassment to The Party. We wouldn’t have it any other way. But I do think it's strange that this would be an issue since I have consumed alcohol at fundraisers, watch parties, candidate meet-and-greets, and while canvassing Iowa in the snow. My understanding is that Republicans, Independents, Greens, and Libertarians also drink occasionally.

Furthermore, my gut reaction is to say that progressivism is about expanding human freedoms not denying them. But I'll try to be more charitable than that.

My purpose in starting a chapter of DL here was to attract newer people and younger people to the Cause. There are a number of folks who—for all sorts of reasons—are unable or unwilling to agitate in the traditional ways. And, as I’ve expressed, we in the netroots generation are growing doubtful of the efficacy of those traditional methods, anyway.

So we’re not so much trying to recruit volunteers as establish a network of people who will talk and spread progressive ideas and ideals. Read between the lines: if you come to Drinking Liberally, we won’t pressure you to canvass nor to give us money. That kind of politics has its place—but so do we. And we believe that a casual conversation over intoxicants can accomplish as much as a knocked door or a pamphleted car. Drinking Liberally chapters sponsor Laughing Liberally events, progressive book signings, and Screening Liberally progressive movie nights in other parts of the country. Eventually, we would like to do these kinds of things, but we have to establish the network first.

I guess I intuit that some of the fun has gone out of liberalism in recent decades. Woody Guthrie used to sing those great songs; mischievous Yippies once nominated Pigasus for President; and there was a time when Hunter Thompson shot his guns at targets other than himself. Now, much of the general public associates us with PC police, strict and humorless vegans, and would-be car and gun regulators. And I have to say that some of the reactions we’ve received to Drinking Liberally suggest that the stereotype isn't altogether undeserved.

Nevertheless, we believe that many people will still go where the party is. Some of us still argue, with Codename-V, that a revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having. Drinking Liberally is for them. Lookit, we don’t have to all be the same. If you’d rather debate issues quietly in your Inside Voice, there are already places and events for you.

If we are to create a progressive movement in this young millennium, we'll have to do it like our parents and grandparents did. By including everyone—from Dust Bowl farmers to factory workers to New York aristocrats. By including everyone—from mothers of 19-year-olds shot in Vietnam to blissed-out Hashbury heads to Walter Cronkite. By including everyone—from the FDR-remembering daughters of those Dust Bowl farmers to old hippies to Sojourners-reading religious progressives to drunken bloggers.

We all have our place. Ours is to steal the Fun from Fundamentalism and put it back in Progressivism where it belongs. The straight-edge schoolmarm Democrats whom we embarrass and offend have a place, too. I certainly hope they continue to vote Democratic, but don’t worry: I have no intention of kidnapping them and forcing them to come drink martinis with me.

Meanwhile, I've noticed that they serve milk and cookies at the Potter Randall Democratic Club.


spacedark