A few rounds with the politically minded pint-lovers of Drinking Liberally
By Katie Pelech
Screaming at Fox News has rendered many a liberal hoarse and parched—and, frankly, driven more than a few to drink. Instead of pouting in their La-Z-Boys with cans of Schlitz, though, these tired, frustrated masses are huddling together at informal meetings of the St. Louis chapters of Drinking Liberally, a national organization that originated in New York City after the start of the Iraq War and is dedicated to the preservation of a well-informed—and well-quenched—body politic.
Nancy Ristau and Wendy Dickson founded the West County chapter more than a year ago, and members still meet once a month at the End Zone, in Chesterfield, to talk politics over drinks and plot their next movie outing (last month it was Jesus Camp). Film and book recommendations are natural offshoots of the lubricated gab-fests, and Ristau eagerly anticipates the St. Louis arrival of Reading Liberally and Screening Liberally, two affiliated clubs still in the fledgling stage. For now, she and Dickson have their own group, which exists to provide a reprieve from hardcore political-action organizations.
“It’s meant to be a social group that’s politics-light,” Dickson explains.
Because we at the Current fancy ourselves uniters and not dividers, we persuaded the two leftist ladies to put aside their partisan biases this election season to tell us which prominent conservatives, dead or alive, they wouldn’t mind having stop by their watering hole. It’s our chastely political interpretation of “Who Would You Do?”
Former U.S. Sen. John Danforth “He’s come out and broken ranks with the religious right and said he supports [embryonic stem-cell research],” Ristau says, “and I admire that.”
U.S. Sen. John McCain “Most people nowadays seem to like to toe the party line,” Ristau says. “I want people to just stand up and say what they think, and he’s been better at doing that than most.”
Former U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater “He said in, like, 1963 that his views would be considered liberal someday,” Dickson says, with audible respect. “He really would be, especially when it comes to social issues.”
Former President Ronald Reagan “I’d just like to have a discussion with him about the party today,” Dickson says. “I don’t think today’s conservatism has anything to do with core conservatism.”
Former President George H.W. Bush “To talk about his son, of course,” Dickson says. “Our current president has some kind of psychological battle going on with Daddy.”
