It's been a tough few weeks for progressives in New York, as the attempted coup in Albany stands in the way of passing marriage equality, protecting reproductive rights and, more generally, undermining the foundations of democracy in our state - namely, the belief that one shouldn't be able to buy it. In the middle of this tumult, our Executive Director, Justin, just caught this diary on Daily Kos:
Abortion Rights, Marriage Equality and other progressive legislation is in peril in NY. Now let's do something about it...We need to meet up, vent, strategize and organize. If you are a Bronx Resident (or even an NYC resident) and looking for a way to get involved, Join me at Drinking Liberally this June 19th. I will be attending this chapter of Drinking Liberally for the first time, I think it's very important that in these times of political crisis, we find support and ways to channel our frustration through progressive groups like Drinking Liberally.
When we were done asking why we hadn't thought of that, we had an idea that we'd like to share here.
Let's be clear - as an organization, Living Liberally endorses no party or political campaign. As individuals, however, the staff of Living Liberally have a strong background in progressive New York politics, and if the entire purpose of our organization is to serve as a non-intimidating outlet people can use to get engaged in politics, then this crisis should be no exception. Our chapter members use Drinking Liberally all the time to take the next steps against conservative dominance - and it just so happens that that's what is happening in New York.
So we're suggesting that if you are a New Yorker upset about the attempted coup, whether you identify as liberal or just believe in good government, that you take a visit to one of our Drinking Liberally chapters, not to mourn, but to meet other folks on the same page, and, to paraphrase Travis, to meet up, vent, strategize and, above all, organize . We're cross-posting this to our friends, The Albany Project, one of the best resources on fighting the takeover of our state government and generally one of the best resources, bar none, on New York politics. They've endorsed this effort to use DL chapters to incubate the resistance, so to speak, and are letting their members know about it.
You can find a list at our New York chapters page of all the active gatherings in the Empire State. If there's not one near you, or if the scheduling doesn't work for you, we're always happy to invite folks to do a one-off Living Liberally meeting, and potentially turn it into a chapter - just email us at info at livingliberally.org to set it up.
Happy Living Liberally!