The Left's new smoke-filled room

In Philadelphia, smoke-filled rooms are not atypical places to discuss politics. However, in a city known for its political machines, at least one such room is a frontier for progressive grass-roots organizing.

Ten Stone at 21st and South streets is the kind of pub that serves free-range beef hamburgers on ciabatta rolls, a quiche du jour and a dozen beers on tap. It is also the local site for Drinking Liberally, where every Tuesday night from 6 to 9, Philadelphia-area grass-roots progressives come to drink, share ideas and provide support in an increasingly hostile political world. And while Drinking Liberally is, at its most basic level, a bunch of lefties drinking for a few hours on a weeknight, it holds promise for something much greater.

Justin Krebs and Matthew O'Neill founded the first Drinking Liberally chapter in New York City in May 2003. When one of the regulars moved to San Francisco and started a second chapter in 2004, a national movement was born. The Philadelphia chapter began on Sept. 17, 2004, when blogger Duncan Black -- better as known as Atrios -- used his Web log to organize the first event. Today, there are 58 locations in 29 states and the District of Columbia, with more than 30 of these groups having formed after Kerry's defeat in November and with new chapters sprouting up constantly.

Drinking Liberally is notable, however, not just for Ten Stone's admirable selection of brews on tap. These events are a significant if preliminary step in building the progressive movement. Krebs described Drinking Liberally to the New York Daily News as the "gateway drug that gets you addicted to politics." As their slogan puts it, Drinking Liberally organizers are "promoting democracy one pint at a time."

But that is not all they are doing.

"The religious right has their church socials -- progressives deserve potato salad too," Elena Levin, organizer of one of the Brooklyn chapters of Drinking Liberally, told the liberal Mother Jones magazine in February. As church socials do for the right, Drinking Liberally chapters build social capital for the political left.

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam brought national attention to the decline of social capital -- briefly, the strength and serviceability of social networks -- in his academic bestseller Bowling Alone. Far from a mushy concept like 'community,' social capital is as important as financial capital in building a political movement. As Putnam writes, "Social movements and social capital are so closely connected that it is sometimes hard to see which is chicken and which egg."

One of the strengths of the American right has long been social capital, both among its political elite and in its grass roots. For example, the upper echelons of conservative movement leadership meet in a weekly gathering organized by Republican anti-tax activist Grover Norquist called "the Wednesday Group." With the social capital generated by such meetings, movement conservatives have united the various strands of American conservatism while the wayward threads of American liberalism have remained untied.

Conservatives also have built more social capital among non-elites, primarily through churches. From the pro-life movement to the Republican Party, in a pinch conservatives can mobilize existing social networks of grass-roots supporters in a way that liberals simply cannot match. For illustration of the relevance and impact of this conservative grass-roots social capital, one needs to look little further than the results of the 2004 election.

The emerging progressive movement is not without social capital or a sense of community, and in many ways, the Drinking Liberally community is a physical manifestation of the liberal blogosphere. Among the 25 people last week at Ten Stone were Black, James Martin Capozzola (author of "The Rittenhouse Review") and grass-roots Democratic Senate candidate Chuck Pennachio, not to mention many lesser-known members of the Philadelphia blogging community.

However, with face-to-face contact limited to emoticons, Web-based organizing creates a mere fraction of the social capital generated by offline organizations. Drinking Liberally helps to deepen the social capital already being generated through online interaction.

In increasingly conservative times, Drinking Liberally offers a safe space for progressives to talk politics, share ideas and build a movement of their own. "In certain social settings, talking about politics will turn people off, but here you know you can talk about what ever you want," said Philadelphia Drinking Liberally organizer Will Weltman.

And even with this group, it's not all politics. Said Weltman, "If there's some pressing issue, we'll talk about that, but since I'm from Chicago, I'll talk about the Bulls or the Cubs."

Kevin Collins is a junior Political Science major from Milwaukee. ...And Justice For All appears on Tuesdays.

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