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Mixing Progressive Politics, and Drinks
City-based drinking liberally draws under-30 crowd into low-key activism
By Laura Brunts

On a recent, unseasonably warm Thursday night, a group of 20-somethings gathers, beer glasses in hand, in the back garden of Rudy’s, a small bar in Hell’s Kitchen. Little white buttons and the intense nature of the conversations reveal this is more than your average bar crowd—it is a weekly gathering of the original chapter of Drinking Liberally.

“It’s the social side of the progressive movement, with the idea that the social side fuels the activist side,” group co-founder Justin Krebs explains to a newcomer.

The non-partisan progressive group is now much more than a weekly social event for young politically minded New Yorkers. There are 172 chapters in 42 states. There are also other ventures, including Laughing Liberally, a touring political comedy show, and Screening Liberally, which hosts screenings of socially conscious films followed by discussions.

The group started as a response to a sense of political disconnectedness that Krebs and his friends were feeling in the spring of 2003. While American soldiers shipped off to Iraq, and protesters filled the streets of New York, they planned.

“We felt so far removed from the political culture of our country. We were feeling politically frustrated, and we were looking ahead to another election in 2004 where our state wouldn’t matter,” Krebs said, referring to New York’s Electoral College standing. “We tried to think of what we could be doing, learning, saying that would have an impact.”

In June 2004, a friend asked to start a chapter in San Francisco. Almost by accident, Drinking Liberally went national, prompting the creation of standardized rules: each chapter must meet at a regular time and place, and chapter leaders stay in contact with the national group through conference calls and regional coordinators.

“It really took on a life of its own,” Krebs said.

Originally, the gatherings were much smaller, sometimes only two or three people. On a recent Thursday, two-dozen people crammed into the backyard of Rudy’s—more than half are regulars.

“It’s my favorite progressive organization,” said Paramendra Kumar Bhagat, who joined earlier this year. He likes the group because the weekly meetings do not involve speakers or phone banking – just talking.

Fred Gooltz, a political consultant who sits on the group’s steering committee, describes two different types of people who come to the events: some who come to socialize, and some who come to make political connections. Bloggers, consultants, and political staffers make up a good part of the crowd.

“Socially, people are freed from any kind of reticence to talk politics,” Gooltz said. “And then there’s the staffer level, a network of semi-professionals.”

Because of his involvement with Drinking Liberally, Gooltz decided to switch careers from acting to politics. He now works for Advomatic, a progressive web consulting firm, and the One America Committee, the political action committee associated with former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, the 2004 Democratic vice presidential nominee.

“If he runs for president, I’ll be doing that,” Gooltz said of Edwards. “And it’s all because of Drinking Liberally.”

While the original Hell’s Kitchen chapter remains the most popular, Krebs said, there are eight others across the city. Most meet monthly, not weekly like the original group, and in many areas a true local identity has developed. At the Williamsburg chapter in Brooklyn, attendees found common ground in their concerns about the area’s redevelopment, leading to collaborative community activism campaigns.

Gooltz said the East Village chapter attracts a “bunch of veteran Green Party folks” who lend their political experience to the younger crowd that largely defines Drinking Liberally. Greens, libertarians and even the occasional disgruntled Republican are a regular part of Drinking Liberally.

Leaders of different liberal political groups aimed at the under-30 crowd agree that recruiting is not too difficult: younger people tend to be more progressive, and many are concerned about the policies of President George W. Bush’s (R) administration.

And that might not be the only reason these groups are so popular, according to Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg, a blogger, activist and organizer for Philadelphia-based voter education initiative Music for America.

“There’s something about activism that attracts girls,” he said of his experience with recruitment. “It brings the girls over to the table, and that brings the men over.”