Lonely Flathead liberals share views over brews

KALISPELL - Neal Brown loves a good beer, a nice hopped-up microbrew with some real depth and breadth, if he can get it.

And on occasion, while quaffing that beer, Brown likes to talk a little politics - quite often politics that lean somewhat to the left.

Trouble is, Brown lives in the Flathead Valley - a bright red GOP stronghold - “and often,” he said, “in this county, if you have a progressive point of view and express it, somebody starts spouting Rush Limbaugh at you from the top of their lungs.

“That's no way to enjoy a beer. All of a sudden, your beer goes flat.”

Which is why, here in the heart of Republicanism, Brown has chartered Montana's only official chapter of a national group called, for better or worse, Drinking Liberally. Every thirsty Thursday from 5 to 7 p.m., Brown and a revolving troupe of progressives meet in downtown Kalispell, in the historic KM Building, at Reds, Wines and Blues, to promote their vision of democracy - one pint at a time.

That's the motto of the national Drinking Liberally group - “Promoting democracy one pint at a time” - which is self-described as an “informal, inclusive progressive social club. Raise your spirits while you raise your glass, and share ideas while you share a pitcher.”

Sounds mighty good to Brown.

So good, in fact, that last fall he finally clicked the “Start a Chapter” link at drinkingliberally.org.

“Then they called me for an interview,” he said. “I had to do an hourlong interview with these guys in New York.”

The guys, and gals, were from Cosmopolity, a group that for years has helped build progressive communities through social events. And bars, they figure, “are democratic spaces.”

There are few rules. Mostly, the interviewers just wanted to be sure Brown would file monthly reports on what's talking in his town, and that he understood that DL chapters are nonpartisan places, where nothing, really, is sacred.

Republicans surely are fair game here. But so are Democrats and Libertarians and Independents and Greens.

Because they all have a hand in the Washington wackiness, where what's on the agenda isn't always what's on our minds.

An tongue-in-cheek example of that, from the DL blog: “Treat the pumped-up case for illegitimate war like pumped-up, illegitimate athletes, and there's no way Bush makes the Hall of Fame.”

“That's a very clear part of it,” Brown said. “This is not about moving anyone's agenda forward. It's about having a beer and talking progressive politics, about things that really matter, not the things the politicians are talking about.”

Organizers advise all attending to “make liberal use of designated drivers,” because “drinking and driving is irresponsible, like a neo-con war, or a corporatist tax break.

“Liberals don't do it.”

The Drinking Liberally movement, if it can be called that, first was tapped in New York City in May 2003, “when it felt as though the politicians, press and public were giving conservative cons a free pass,” according to DL's online history.

Now, there are 230 chapters in 44 states, plus Washington, D.C.

Actually, make that 231 chapters in 45 states, now that Brown's put Montana on the map.

Some chapters insist on a group question for discussion every week, or talking points, or an article to review, but most are more free-flowing.

“Here,” Brown said, “we're a chapter in name only. It's a chapter with no structure.”

Brown himself's been a truck driver and an airplane builder, and a bar owner and a beer brewer and a chocolatier and a sailor and an Army man and a builder of bat houses, and his chapter is a whole lot like that.

“Because you know, politics and beer don't always mix that well, if you know what I mean.”

On a recent night they talked beer and politics, of course, but they also talked subdivisions and dance and movies and art and gasoline prices. They talked thrift stores, and where Don got those pants.

They talked headlines - “I'm glad they didn't put Mark Rey behind bars, because we just don't need that kind of influence in our jails” - and they talked what should be in the headlines, but isn't.

They talked food and music and skiing and economics and meteors and, oddly, their favorite moments from funerals gone by.

Neal, for one, was touched by the horse that ambled past, saddle empty, for a lost friend. Lynn Stanley, who comes every week, remembers the cigarette slipped between the fingers of a man who loved the tobacco that took his life.

“We don't need any rules,” Brown said. “We're just talking about what's there in the world.”

And to be honest, this meeting, if it can be called that, probably should be titled “Thinking Liberally,” as it rambles from near to far and back again.

The first gathering of Montana's only progressive drinking club was just before Christmas, when 16 showed up. Since then, Brown's e-mail list has grown to more than 60, although only a fraction of those turn out any given week.

Those who do can expect to hear a few jabs at President Bush, and also a few at Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton and pretty much all the pols. After all, the way Brown sees it, wanting to be president should automatically disqualify you from the office, as it can only be a sign of megalomania or some other form of mild insanity.

This evening, in fact, begins with a surreal laptop-computer showing of “Falling Hillary,” an animated and never-ending scene of the former first lady tumbling and folding in impossible yoga through a sky of big, white spheres, her manic smile the only constant. When she gets stuck, someone nudges her with the cursor, and away she goes.

“This is a place for liberals to feel totally safe, whatever they choose to talk about,” says Brown's wife, Patty. “Anything goes, and it's OK.”

There's a bit of political networking going on here, greasing the machine, but it's subtle and behind the scenes.

Alex Hilton, long known in Democratic circles here, sat and drank liberally with Cheryl Steenson and Carla Augustad, both political newcomers hoping for Montana House seats come November. But those party people sat at a table apart from the “unaffiliated” DL cast of characters, somewhat off to the right, and they didn't discuss favorite funerals.

Still, “sitting down here I've learned things I couldn't learn anywhere else,” Augustad said.

Bars are like that.

“I would have had to go to every single government office to get the skinny on what's going on,” she said. “But all I had to do was come in here.”

A local singer strummed Grateful Dead songs while Augustad and Steenson and Hilton talked local politics, “because everybody I know is sick and tired of national politics,” Augustad said. “Everything is local. Montana needs to lead by example for the nation, and that begins at home.”

So she talked about bridge construction and new housing developments and highways, while Brown talked about movies, and others considered what would happen if Hungry Horse Dam shook down in an earthquake.

“There's no agenda,” Brown said. “There's no beginning, and there's no end. Five to seven on Thursdays, those are just suggested hours. It keeps going.”

You can drink liberally, he said, whenever the urge takes you.

Though if you don't want to drink liberally, there are alternatives. You might, for instance, try Shooting Liberally, which is another group under the same Cosmopolity umbrella.

They meet at gun ranges - “for the First Amendment enthusiast ready to move on to the Second” - from Manhattan (the one in New York) to Denver and into the Dixie South.

Or perhaps Laughing Liberally is more your style, a left-of-center comedy-club outing where Bush's veto of children's health care is known as “No Child Left Without Ringworm.”

Their DVD is called “Bringing Down the House Š and Senate,” and like the beer lovers, their goal is “saving democracy one laugh at a time.”

Screening Liberally is for movie fans, because “this isn't just about motion pictures, this is about the big picture.”

Reading Liberally is a book club for local literary lefties.

And over at Eating Liberally they've blended politics and food, stirring Super Tuesday elections together with Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras celebrations for Super Fat Tuesday parties.

Chew on that one for a while.

The progressive epicures are the brainchild of “a couple of free-range, Omega 3-enhanced eggheads” who want you to “free yourself from the fossil fuel food chain.”

But not, Brown hopes, from his nicely chilled IPA.

“This might be the center of Montana's Republican Party,” he said, “but I'm not a member of the GOP. Neither are any of these people. In other words, all kinds of people live in the Flathead, and I guess we just needed a place to be ourselves, without getting shouted down.”

He takes a long draught, runs a hand over his bald head, sips again.

“We're just having a couple beers, you know? That's all. There's no agenda. We're just talking together and having some beers.”

Just drinking and thinking and saving democracy, perhaps, one political pint at a time.

Reporter Michael Jamison can be reached at 1-800-366-7186 or at mjamison@missoulian.com.

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