Drinking Liberally

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Drinking Liberally is, according to its FAQ^[1] , a US-wide "informal, inclusive progressive drinking club." Founded in May 2003 by Justin Krebs and Matthew O'Neill at Rudy's Bar and Grill in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City, it has, as of August 2006, 160 chapters in forty-two states, plus Washington, DC, and Dublin Ireland, including many groups in traditionally red states such as Utah, Virginia and Alaska. The group has drawn attention from the national and international press ^[2]. Katrina Baker is National Organizer for Drinking Liberally. The name Drinking Liberally was conceived by Owen Roth.

The first chapter outside of New York was formed when a member of the original group moved to San Francisco; the later growth of Drinking Liberally is partly due to the influence of left-leaning political blogs, which spread the word and encouraged people outside of the New York City area to start their own chapters.

Chapters of Drinking Liberally meet at a regular bar or pub, and at a regular time each week, to enable members to discuss liberal and progressive politics in a friendly environment. Drinking Liberally has also served as a place for progressive networking and as a place for local and state-level politicians to recruit volunteers and generate support for their campaigns ^[3]. Membership in the Democratic Party is not a requirement, and many attendees do not describe themselves as Democrats. There is no ideological requirement for attendance, although, in keeping with the group's name, nearly all who do attend identify with the "liberal" label.

In the early stages of Drinking Liberally's growth, attendees were predominantly young (between twenty and thirty years old); as the organization has expanded and received greater media coverage, a much wider range of ages can be found at any particular meeting, and some chapters have been founded by people well over the age of thirty.

Top-down management of Drinking Liberally is light; the only requirements for chapters are:

That they meet at a regular meeting time and place.
That they do not charge for admission.
That they remain independent of other organizations (according to the website ^[4], "Drinking Liberally can't be "presented by" any other group.")
That the organizer of each chapter participate in a monthly 30-minute conference call.

The first rule has been bent slightly to accommodate the offshoot "Drinking Liberally Steps Out", which hosts its meetings at the same time each week, but in a different gay or lesbian bar in the New York City area.