Drinking Liberally

New York City has outlawed dancing-without-a-license since 1926. Seriously. Bars and restaurants require cabaret licenses -- originally a measure to crack-down on interracial couples -- if people want to shake a leg. And, in some cases, proprietors have been fined for failure to stop dancers.

All that may soon change, as Mayor Bloomberg is said to be planning a repeal of these arcane laws.

As ridiculous as it was that these laws have existed -- putting NYC in the lonely anti-dance camp only otherwise occupied by religious extremists -- it's more ridiculous that it took so long to tackle them. Despite efforts from advocates like Scott Jeffrey of Legalize, there has never been a really strong, public, dynamic, effective movement to make this change...despite being in a strong, dynamic entertainment-fueled city of conscious, creative-class warriors.

Last year, on the eve of the 4th of July holiday, George Bush pardoned Scooter Libby. I remember being infuriated by it, finding some solace in Keith Olberman's special comment calling upon Bush and Cheney to resign, and I remember thinking, "Surely there is some precedent in American history that has offered wisdom for exactly this type of scenario."

Then I remembered to read The Declaration of Independence.

What did this document say to indict the monarch named George?

"He has obstructed the Administration of Justice"...

"He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance"...

"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power"...

As Thomas Jefferson penned, "for depriving us in many cases,
of the benefit of Trial by Jury," the ruler had earned himself a Revolution...and Jefferson reminded me that the Declaration of Independence is absolutely an annual must-read.

I've always thought there should be some other celebration associated with the 4th, beyond barbecues, beaches and fireworks (all of which I love).

Our friends at the Bus Project, as was blogged about on this site, figured out the progressive festivities for Halloween. So who has figured out the new way to mark Independence Day?

Until we sort it out, I'll just settle for attending Drinking Liberally tonight...and reading this document out loud -- to anyone who will listen -- tomorrow.

Greetings, Future Majority -- thanks, Mike, for inviting a few of us to post this week...and for creating such an important online space.

Since I'll be appearing a couple times this week, I wanted to start with an introduction -- my name is Justin Krebs, and I'm executive director of Living Liberally, a national network that creates social communities around progressive politics.

What is a liberal? We get asked that a lot -- and my somewhat dodge of an answer is that people know when they are one...around the country, the attendees of Drinking Liberally choose to identify as liberals -- I don't need to tell them what they are -- they can tell me what liberal is.

And our liberal libation-lifters around the country do. Dan Henry, from our Idaho Falls, has been working to create legal opportunities for youth to protest the war following an incident when several teens were arrested for defacing street signs in an anti-war action. In Denver, liberals took in a night of laughter, attending comedy shows together to promote their progressive identity. Our Springfield, Illinois, chapters believes that part of being liberal is playing host to special guests: candidates, advocates and psychedelic cowboy bands.

How are you liberal? If it's good, put it in the comments...maybe one of our chapters will follow your lead -- or maybe we'll highlight it over at our newly-relaunched Living Liberally blog, where we post reviews alongside rants, and amusements alongside analysis...because that's part of being liberal too.

In my travel yesterday, I forgot that I was missing the 5th anniversary of Drinking Liberally at Rudy's. It's pretty crazy that it's been 5 years (and now in all 50 states). I can remember when it was just a few of us sitting around trying to think up slogans to put on buttons.

Here's what a few political rock stars had to say about it:

• First, I've been remiss in reporting that Mike Lux at Open Left is calling on all netroots progressives to work their asses off to register high-school seniors before they graduate. He's even got some ideas on how it might work. - Open Left
• Hillary Rosen, former head of the RIAA (and proponent of taking students, seniors, and assorted toddlers to court over filesharing) is now running the political operation at Huffington Post. WTF? - Boing Boing
• The Democrats are proposing that we pay soldiers who are stop-lossed into service (aka back door draft). Sounds good to me. - Daily Kos
• Ben Adler gives us a brief history of Drinking Liberally on the week in which the organization celebrates its 5 year anniversary. Congrats to Justin and Matt for all their accomplishments. - The Politico
• Georgia10 takes a stab at outlining what Ted Kennedy means to the Millennial Generation. - Daily Kos
• What can we expect from Generation "Z" ? - Profy.com
• Google: Viacom's YouTube lawsuit threatens the net. - Mashable!
• And finally, Joe gives us a run-down on the state of the race and why it's OK that the Clinton campaign keeps chugging along. And congrats to Joe on scoring the AlterNet gig. I believe this means that all 3 people who served as Web/Communications Director at MFA are now in the employ of AlterNet.

In case you missed it, last night our pals at Drinking Liberally were on The Daily Show in a segment with John Oliver about the YouTube/CNN debates. Watch the crew live up to their motto - saving democracy one pint at a time.

Drinking Liberally gets mentioned a lot on this site, as an important example of the youth revolution/dotOrg Boom of 2003/2004, as well as the return of social capital and grassroots energy to progressive politics. For those of you who have never been to a Drinking Liberally (trust me, there's one near you), check out this video. It's a good rundown of what the whole scene is about.

Here are two examples of folks who are taking "old" politics and making it new again. I like the first (and I participate in it). I'm doubtful about the utility of the second.

• David Alpert of Drinking Liberally has an op-ed on TomPaine about the organization's origins and philosophy.

  I came to Drinking Liberally (and I'm not even a big drinker) looking to connect with people over politics and friendships. Eight months later, I was getting in a van to canvass voters right before the 2004 election, with eight friends—regular Liberal Drinkers—who were strangers to me the year before.

  For the Founding Fathers, politics was a community sport. George Washington regularly stopped in to the local taverns in New York and Philadelphia as he traveled the country during the Revolution and afterward. Samuel Adams and John Hancock hatched the idea for the Boston Tea Party over an ale at the Green Dragon Tavern in Boston. Tom Paine, this site's inspiration, was active in a debating club, the Headstrong Club, at the White Hart Tavern in Lewes, England, before he moved to America, and developed many of his political beliefs there.

  I remember when DL was like five folks in the back of Rudys bar in Hell's Kitchen trying to dream up slogans for a button campaign. Now, on their 4th anniversary, they've got over 200 chapters across the country. Congratulations to all on that achievement, and for reviving the social camaraderie of civic participation.

• I've been meaning to blog about this for a long time, and need to just put it out there. Students across the country are reviving the 60s radical group Students for a Democratic Society.
  
  I have mixed feelings about this.

November 2nd, 2004 was a dark day for me and tens-of-millions of other progressives around the nation. Despite a faltering economy, a war of choice that was sold with lies and horribly executed, and rising health care and tuition costs, George W. Bush, our own Nero, won reelection. John Kerry, the terribly out-of-touch, indecisive, and uninspiring Democratic candidate, couldn’t convince the nation that he would be better than the current disaster, and so the nation voted for Bush.

Though conventional wisdom holds that Kerry lost over “values” voters, the most compelling statistics that I have seen paint a different picture. In fact, it seems that Kerry lost on the issues of Terrorism and National Security. It appears that the Bush and Republican-aligned Campaigns (such as the infamous and typically ironically named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth) were able to convince many Americans that George W. Bush was a more capable handler of the War on Terror, and they were able to use John Kerry’s Vietnam service against him. I believe I had been correct in guessing that the election would hinge upon a war fought 30 years ago; that the memories of that important time in the lives of many, if not most, of the voting public would call upon the lessons of that war and color the decisions that these people made. However, I was completely wrong to believe that this would help John Kerry. I thought that people would look at this war as a new Vietnam and reject the President who put us there. Instead, the behavior of Kerry and other Democrats during the tumultuous 60s and 70s, and especially their protests of Vietnam, is what was brought to mind by skillful Republican messengers.

My conviction that perceptions about security and strength amongst the group that came of age around Vietnam determine the outcome of the election, and not so-called values like hatred of homosexuals, was hardened a few months after the Presidential election. In the most Republican district in the entire American North East, Ohio’s 2nd Congressional District, a little known Iraq War Veteran named Paul Hackett decided to run for office as a Democrat, in a special election for that district’s U.S. House Seat. Hackett, who said that those who opposed Gay Marriage were “un-American,” narrowly lost his election to Jean Schmidt, 48-52. Bush had won the district with 64% of the vote less than a year before.