“My friends, we need to have a party tonight.

Whether you realize it or not, you did something big and important when you added your email to this list, or came to see us for the first time. That was the first step in your decision to learn more, to reach out to other people, to challenge the conventional wisdom we all swim in that says politics isn’t real life.

We’re asked, fairly often, what good a group like DL can do when it’s “just” social. We’re not party-affiliated. We’re prohibited from endorsing or disavowing candidates and ballot initiatives. Wouldn’t we be so much more effective, the argument goes, if we just did more?

One flaw in that logic is the presumption that all of us who care about our country and its direction are in a common place in our political journeys, and in our awareness. That’s just not true: most of our members say they weren’t all that interested in politics before they got involved with DL, and now they can’t wait to find out more.

Another flaw is that by being ’social,’ we’re devaluing direct action. That, too, isn’t correct: by bringing together members of disparate groups, people are able to make even more connections and have even more opportunities to volunteer, canvass, support, raise awareness.

But the biggest flaw of all is that the group doesn’t do anything. On the contrary, the group does what may be the most important thing of all: it allows ordinary people like us to integrate political awareness into the fabric of our lives. It gets us used to talking and thinking about these issues. It normalizes politics without asking us to drink anybody’s Kool-Aid (just beer!). And it does that to such an extent that people who had no political awareness at all a year ago are now convincing their co-workers to change their votes. You’re phone-banking. You’re registering people to vote. You’re volunteering. You’re running for office, or considering a run. You’re not being silent any more.

John Urgo and HEAL Utah had a great little message about the re-naming of the Delta Center to “EnergySolutions Arena”. I especially like Dan Patrick’s idea of calling it “The Dump”:

The Democrats take the House and the Senate, Rumsfeld resigns, the RNC chairman resigns. All reasons to celebrate, but is there anything better than Rick Santorum being defeated?

Was it because he was really as abhorrent as the disgusting substance that was named after him? (Not for the weak of heart.)

Here’s a great video I found on YouTube of Chris Cannon dancing around the issues in debates.  Let’s boot him out, fellow third disricters!

Last night we were honored to have former Army Journalist and current peace activist Marshall Thompson come speak to Drinking Liberally. Marshall recently completed a 28-day, 500 mile walk from the northern Utah border to the southern Utah border - approximately one day for every American soldier who has died in Iraq.

Marshall started this ambitious walk after spending a year deployed in Iraq where he was witness to many things that further convinced him that this war was causing more problems than it was solving. Marshall went into the war knowing that it was an ill-conceived war, but went anyway to honor the obligation he made to our country. While in Iraq, he blogged at chokeholdiniraq.blogspot.com.

Marshall joined the Army Reserves soon after serving an LDS mission. His first Army mission was to Kosovo, where he didn’t particularly like the overwhelming air power used by the military, which came at the expense of civilians. Marshall reminded us that during that conflict, it was the conservatives that were calling for us to bring the troops home and get out of the war, which today is called “not supporting the troops”. Years later when Marshall got his call to Iraq, his wife Kristen was ready to give birth to their first child, Eliza. Needless to say, his call to duty was not convenient, but it’s not hard to imagine that this was a common thing for soldiers.

Marshall went to Iraq with major reservations. His walk through Utah was not only to bring attention to the fact that we need to bring our troops home, but also to rectify his service in Iraq with himself, his wife and his daughter. He feels that his participation in the war, even though he never had to hurt anyone, means that he has blood on his hands. One of the DL’ers pointed out that we all have blood on our hands, by virtue of paying taxes and having a say in the course of our nation, yet allowing this war to happen.