It’s the year of the woman and you’d better be signed up to vote for her.

It’s been quite a roller-coaster ride since the Republican National Committee chose Mitt Romney as “most likely to succeed” President Barack Obama. Clearly, from the day President Obama took his oath of office in 2009, the right wing has been dead set on blocking all Democrat-sponsored legislation, as evidenced by the dramatically increased use of filibusters to block congressional voting.

One might assume that the constant undermining of the President by Republicans pining to recapture the White House would result in a breezy success story for the Romney campaign. It seems, however, that despite high expectations, the public has not fallen in love with the former Governor. His popularity has been dropping in recent weeks – caused, to a degree, by some inelegant candid statements captured on video and leaked to the press.

Desperate for a win, the GOP has resorted to disenfranchising whole segments of the population by reintroducing a modernized version of the post-Civil War Jim Crow era. Numerous Republican-controlled states have passed legislation that would discourage African Americans, Latinos, the elderly, the poor, and students from voting. Under the guise of “anti-fraud” regulations—though studies have shown voting fraud is almost non-existent—33 states now require one or more forms of picture identification to cast a ballot, even though many will find acquiring the necessary documentation to be difficult or impossible.

Although the Department of Justice is currently reviewing these restrictive measures state-by-state, time is growing short. The presidential election of 2012 is now only 43 days away. Meanwhile, grass-roots organizations are springing up to register voters, using social media venues like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to reach as many people as possible.

Today, September 25, is National Voter Registration Day and registering to vote will be as simple as going to a web site. There will be events at local libraries and schools nationwide. Just hit the “events” tab on the navigation bar, type in your zip code, and you will be pointed in the right direction. (Be sure to check the hours for each venue, as they may vary.)

For voter registration questions or to report problems (if any) there’s a toll-free number to call and contact information available in both English and Spanish. You’ll also find excellent information on requirements and deadlines for each state available from the New York University’s Brennan Center for Justice. Simply find your state on the interactive map of the U S. and with a click, you’ll discover everything needed to cast your vote on November 6. While the site indicates it’s for students, anyone seeking detailed guidelines to state regulations or other updated election-related news will find this to be a useful resource.

And finally, check out Cuéntame. Geared to a young Latino audience, it’s enlightening, fact-filled, and entertains while delivering an inspiring message. You’ll register and then run to the voting booth on Election Day. Guaranteed.

video by Cuéntame

The post It’s the Year of the Woman: Register Today To Vote appeared first on EcoSalon.

A round-up of what we’re reading right now. 

Because you should never be without a to-go cup: now you can make your own from a mason jar. Just make sure you use a reusable straw. [Via Fine and Feathered]

It’s back-to-school season, but what does education look like in the rest of the world? This portrait slideshow takes us into classrooms from around the globe. [Via Brain Pickings]

Summer isn’t over until the fall equinox, and this healthy Mint Mojito Smoothie might just be the afternoon reminder that you need to embrace the late season. [Via Well+Good NYC]

Movies can be educational, which is why someone came up with this list of Lifetime movies for Republicans who don’t understand rape. [Via The Cut]

Minimalism is on trend right now. Even for Kuwaitis. [Via Dezeen]

Your drinking habits depend on the shape of your glass. [Via The Atlantic]

Our new dream house? A converted barn in France. [Via The Style Files]

On average, Americans eat 200 pounds of meat a year. That’s not just bad for our health, it’s also fueling the water crisis. [Via Mother Jones]

Trying to figure out how to live better in small spaces? You need the Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Feng Shui. [Via Greatist]

Image: Fine and Feathered

The post Link Love: How to Turn a Mason Jar Into a To-Go Cup, Kuwaiti Minimalism and Movies for Republicans Who Don’t Understand Rape appeared first on EcoSalon.

10 dinner parties to make you rethink eating as a group.

You may think dinner parties are things that only happened in eighties movies but you would be wrong. Last week, I overheard a woman with a three week old baby planning a dinner party for the following weekend. That’s some serious dedication to the form and we’ve all got some catching up to do.

Plus, of course, there are few things quite as glorious as sitting around a table with good friends, eating good food and drinking good wine and having those wonderful “Never Want This To End” moments. There should be more of those, so try to squeeze a couple of these dinner parties in before the end of your summer.

The Forager Dinner Party

There’s food growing all over that mystical environment place ready for the taking and completely free of charge. So use it. If you know there is a ready stash of forageable food nearby, pick three or four things, such as sorrel, nettles, berries and mushrooms, and base your dishes around them. If you’re feeling brave, ask your guests to bring something they found on the way over to yours and cook on the fly.

Locavore
 Dinner Party

Make your house the epicenter of your foodie world by only buying produce from within a 100 mile radius to whip up delicious dinner treats for your buddies. You know the drill: farmers markets, veg boxes, co-ops, home grown and so on. Really this is just your standard cooking with slightly altered shopping habits, except we’re all very right on round here so probably the shopping habits aren’t even changed that much. So, uh, file under Totally Normal Dinner Party.

The Family-Style Eating Dinner Party

You can do this one of two ways. Either make everyone eat food cooked for slightly too long in a pressure cooker while a middle aged Jewish woman shouts at you for not doing your homework. Or dish up huge bowls of hearty salads and platters of meats and cheeses, or serve a heavy, heady stew in a huge enamel pot, and let everyone dig in. Slabs of crusty bread are crucial, regardless of the main dish you serve. Tear it apart with your hands and share the chunks all around.

The Austerity Dinner Party

It’s tough times all round, so who can afford to throw a full-on swanky dinner party? More to the point, who can be bothered cooking when there’s gin to be drinking? Cheap c’est chic! Go all out with lentils, pulses, rices and root veg. You can do incredible things with red lentils, butternut squash, kale and garam masala, and a French onion soup with homemade bread is basically the best thing humans have ever invented. Ever. Except for maybe gin.

The State of the Nation Dinner Party

See above, except 1% of your guests eat foie gras while wearing top hats and tails and laughing a very tight laugh.

The Craparet Dinner Party

You know that thing where you watch an amazing show, like the circus where unfeasibly sexy and bendy people make you feel inadequate, or a friend gives you tickets to something and it turns out to be these guys, or this, and that inadequacy conspires with inspiration and you vow to become the best goddam drum-playing trapeze artist the world has ever seen. EVER! Except you don’t, of course, you remain slightly adept at a marginal skill. Accept that you will never perform in the cabaret of your dreams and instead join the craparet.

Ask each dinner party guest to perform a short act in the spirit of crap entertainment; a shoddy magic trick perhaps, or a half-baked burlesque routine. A song sung out of key. Feed your guests backstreet cabaret fare: little triangle sandwiches or burgers, fish cakes, spring rolls, cocktail sausages, bowls of nuts, olives or pretzels, and considerably sized buckets of red wine.

The Independence Day Party

Over here in Brit-land we don’t do Independence Day because we basically invented the whole world. But on any given month, there is a country somewhere in the world having their own Independence Day celebration. Do it like they do in Finland, Jamaica or Mexico, and if things get really bad with the economy, use your new found cultural know-how to declare your house an independent state.

The Food Crawl Dinner Party

Why lumber one person with all the hard work? Allot starter, main and dessert to a different guest and travel from house to house in between courses, exploring each households take on a theme: vegan, vegetarian, conscious meaties, local, or just delicious food and booze.

The Republican Party

Come as yourself, but take on a particular belief, policy or idiosyncrasy from the never ending pool of bizzaro-juice that is the Republican Party. Confuse consent and non-consent. Confuse North and South Korea. Insist the person sitting on your right spends the evening carrying a fetus to term.

After dinner (Republican dinner? It doesn’t matter, as long as the women cook), guess what everyone else was acting out. The winner gets to act/not act on a matter that is none of their business/desperately urgent.

The What Curiosity Found Dinner Party

Or What Curiosity found. Either/or. Present your findings once you’ve eaten. Powerpoint and pointy lasers welcome. After-dinner speakers are the absolute bee’s knees. Yes they are!

Image: Angry JulieMonday, Carly & Art, NatalieMaynor, kevin dooley, Gabriella Corrado, garryknight, emmadiscovery

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Hey ladies look! This is really just a fun game!

Listen, you would hardly consider blaming modern-day Civil War reenactors for the massive casualties sustained at the Battle of Shiloh. So there’s no need to get upset with Republican officials for trying to recreate the state of women’s rights in 1860. They’re propelled by curiosity – what it must have been like to live in a world where women weren’t allowed to control their own bodies? They’re living historians committed to total immersion in the past. Last time I checked there’s no law against caring too much.

Yes, they actually blocked a bill called the Violence Against Women Act in the House last week, after which they presumably twirled their mustaches and tied a few female congressional aides to the nearest railroad tracks.

And it’s also true that Republicans in the House are trying to eliminate funding for programs that provide cancer screenings and birth control to low-income women. But you know what? It’s easier and less terrifying if you just think of modern-day Republicans as extremely committed Handmaid’s Tale LARPers. LARPers who are using the national political landscape as their tabletop and women as their player characters.

“I cast a freezing spell that eliminates subsidized access to reproductive care under Medicaid!”

“I counter with an abortion-ban charm!”

“I move that we declare Colorado a men-only state!”

“My ice hammer smashes every STD screening clinic in the American Northwest!”

“I don’t think your character would do that, dude.”

“What do you mean?”

“I feel like that’s really branching out from your range of abilities. What wood-elf has an ice hammer?”

“This wood-elf has an ice hammer, Kevin, because this wood elf was paying attention during the Battle of the Seven Fields and collected the gear of the fallen, which is totally protected under the Treaty of the Ford, which you would remember if you had actually participated that day instead of changing your costume like seven times. Kevin.”

“I’m just saying I -”

“My ice hammer smashes Kevin.”

“Dude, that’s shitty. That’s so shitty.”

“Do you defend?”

“You know I don’t have anything that can counter an ice ha -”

“Then I guess you should probably get off the field and join the Womb Monitors.”

“All I said was -”

“Those wombs aren’t going to monitor themselves, Kevin.”

See? It’s fun now. Nothing terrifying going on here.

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14 facts to share at your 4th of July bbq.

As our nation celebrates its 236th birthday with fireworks, watermelon, jello and cool whip, EcoSalon gives you some Fourth-related factoids. Why? Because all barbecues need a know-it-all who can spout trivia while cooking one of our 4th of July recipes.

Best Gift Ever: On July 4th 1884, France presented the U.S. with Lady Liberty herself, after shipping the disassembled statue in crates across the Atlantic and re-building it in New York City.

Shacking Up: On July 4th, 1845, Henry David Thoreau decided to forgo all barbecues and fireworks by moving into his cabin at Walden Pond.

Rest in Peace: Three U.S. presidents have died on America’s birthday. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson (the second and third presidents, respectively) died within hours of one another in 1826, while James Monroe (the fifth) passed away in 1831.

Hot Damn: Americans will consume roughly 155 million hot dogs on the fourth, which is perhaps the reason why the month of July is distinguished as National Hot Dog Month.

Lennon’s Independence: “Give Peace a Chance,” John Lennon’s first solo single, was released in the mother country on America’s birthday in 1969.

A Solemn Remembrance: The U.S. isn’t the only nation to celebrate its independence this week. Rwandans observe Liberation Day on July 4th, commemorating the end of the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Hot Off the Press: The Pennsylvania Evening Post was the first newspaper to print the Declaration of Independence on July 6th, 1776.

Poet and the Patriot: On July 4th 1855, one of America’s finest and most controversial poets—Walt Whitman—published the first edition of his magnum opus, Leaves of Grass.

The Star Spangled Drinking Song: America’s national anthem has the same melody as “The Anacreontic Song,” which served as the title track of The Anacreontic Society, a gentlemen’s music club in London.

Birthday Buddies: Calvin Coolidge is the only U.S. president to share a birthday with the country he presided over; he was born in 1872.

Bottoms Up: The Fourth of July is America’s biggest beer-drinking occasion, with 63.5 million cases sold around the holiday, according to a 2009 Neilsen survey.

Independence From Whom?: A 2010 poll found that more than one quarter of Americans aren’t so sure just who our forefathers were fighting against.  

Parading Republicans: Apparently Fourth of July parades are a right wing thing. A 2011 Harvard study found that patriotic parades are more likely to turn kids into republicans rather than democrats and to boost republican voter turnout on election day.

America’s Finest: Nobel Laureate Marie Curie, the only scientist to ever win prizes in two different fields of study, passed away on July 4th, 1934.

Image: Marion Doss

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The fleecing of America begins with savvy marketing.

“Artisan” potato chips are in danger of going the way of “natural” soda thanks to unhelpful consumers who crave exciting new marketing as well as mouthfeel. Did you hear about this? Since the whole “artisan” marketing trend has been exposed and ridiculed, it’s time for manufacturers and marketers in and outside the sustainable realm to conscript new adjectives to help them class up otherwise pedestrian products that, annoyingly, consumers are no longer falling for.

Lay. It used to be that willful ignorance was applauded merely around election season, but with the rise in popularity of intellectual deficiency, it’s a good opportunity to sell hitherto “smart” services as common labor more befitting the common man.

According to the American Bar Association, there are currently 1,225,452 active lawyers in the United States, meaning – more importantly – that there are (as of this writing) 311,279,520 non-lawyers in the United States. Who’s got a better chance of knowing about your day-to-day, non-legal-profession travails – the white-shoe lawyer in the 0.39% or the lay lawyer in the 99.61%? The ABA has hinted at endorsing a lay bar exam by 2014. We are the 99%…who will sue you.

Immigrant-free. With U.S. unemployment close to 10%, companies will surely see the popularity of their products increase if they position themselves as part of the solution to joblessness. An immigrant-free boast can instantly convert your product into a patriotic statement.

Wouldn’t you bristle with pride at your dinner party when your immigrant caterers serve immigrant-free chocolate dipped strawberries in the house you’ve just made sparkling with immigrant-free cleaners? Sure, there’s some implicit xenophobia and racism here, but wouldn’t you rather be perceived as patriotic than not-racist or not-xenophobic? Exactly. Naturally, the immigrant-free American Flag lapel pin – Chinese-made so Chinese workers don’t have to emigrate to produce them here – is coming soon.

Orthodox. Here’s a word that’s been itching to shed its religious overtones ever since “fundamentalist” came along, usurping the sheen of close-minded nastiness it had enjoyed uniquely for nearly 2,000 years. Throw in the aesthetics associated with Orthodox Christianity and the erudition associated with Orthodox Judaism, and you’ve got some real synergy.

Imagine purchasing Orthodox Clorox for your disinfecting needs. Or Orthodox Nestle?

Siberian. Do you know what it’s like in Siberia? Aside from some lit-class forays into something called Dostoevsky and Solzhenitsyn, most of us don’t like leaving the region – and its natural characteristics – wide-open to liberal interpretation. Siberian huskies are the best kind of huskies; ditto for Siberian tigers and Siberian winters. There was even a time when the world’s best figure skater was Siberian, too.

Siberian MacBook? Makes the Panasonic Toughbook look like this. Besides, Snow Leopard? Think about it.

 j-. Apple’s made hay with the letter i, so why not one-up them with j? Imagine everything you love about Apple products – the sleek design, the smugly sophisticated sense of superiority – and now make it one better. If Spinal Tap’s amps can go to 11, then surely your phone can go to j.

But don’t limit yourself to personal electronics. jCarrots, for example, are perfectly symmetrical, easy to chop for soups, stews, or snacks – much more convenient than your standard carrots, plus they make a bigger statement that baby carrots. And you’ll crave jCigarettes not for their nicotine, but because you simply must advertise to the world that you’re smoking a “designed in California” masterpiece, not some garden-variety, cloned e-cigarette. And when upgrading products, simply add the letter t, and everyone will know it’s this year’s model, such as the newly released and eminently yellow, deliciously un-mushy jBanana 4t.

Image: Mhaller 1979

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American culture circa 2011: Land of the partisans, home of the tribes.

We are a nation divided – by religion, by politics, by sexual mores, by attitudes toward food, climate change, science, land ownership and business, and so much more. We gravitate toward those who share most, if not all, of our views and opinions, and away from those who are different from us. Our nation really began as a collection of tribes (the basis of our federal system), and we have returned to this state ideologically.

On its face, finding like-minded people is a good thing. It allows us to feel like we belong. Being with people who share our taste in books, agree with us on health care legislation, go to the same church, live in our neighborhood, or work in our profession is comforting. People unite for causes and rally together for change. But, they also band together to inflict harm and dispense hate.

Seth Godin says that people thought the internet would be a great homogenizing influence, yet it has done more to help people form silos and band together with others of similar thinking than any other technology or tool in recent memory.

When we can understand opposing beliefs, even if we don’t embrace them, we can still function as a group, while our tribes form supportive, yet minor, internal cliques. Managing this balance is what makes a tolerant and unified society, but on many significant topics, our beliefs are so unyielding, so far from the middle, that our tribes clash furiously. As warring tribes, we can’t function as a group to solve our society’s problems and move forward.

In the Name of God…

Religion permeates everyday life in a multitude of ways, causing tension and strife between those who embrace its influence in every aspect of their lives, and those who believe it doesn’t belong in schools, government or the workplace. Religious and political lines divide us over many issues, including abortion rights and birth control, gay rights and same sex marriage, education, science, medicine and even climate change.

Although legislation has kept them separate for years, religion is creeping into public schools. Religious student groups are forming on campuses and handing out Bibles. The law says that students can express religious beliefs as long as they do not disrupt class or school activities, however schools must remain neutral, neither endorsing nor interfering with religious practices.

Religion can be deeply embedded in family culture. The range of religious involvement spans the spectrum from students spearheading religious groups on campus, to students who have faith, but keep it out of school, to students who simply don’t believe and just want to attend school without religious undertones.

One tribe believes in an entity that is all-knowing and all-forgiving, while the other believes that there is no heaven, everyone is accountable for their own actions and no deity will confer forgiveness. Children brought up to have faith often can’t comprehend children whose families do not, and ostracize those children due to their nonbelief. At the same time, students who are devoutly religious can also experience ridicule.

An extreme example of religious intolerance is the recent mass shooting in Oslo, Norway, where Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik bombed a federal building in Oslo, killing seven people, before traveling to a youth camp that espoused multiculturalism principles and shooting 86 adults and teenagers, resulting in 93 dead and 96 injured. Breivik wrote a 1,500 page manifesto about his Christian views and values, and viciously denounced multiculturalism in Europe. He also traversed the internet raging against Muslims and Islam. Breivik has confessed to carrying out the bombing and shooting, but maintains that he was absolutely justified in his actions to save Europe from encroaching Islam. Although European leaders condemned his actions, The New York Times reports that there has been a steady increase in extreme right-wing groups and sentiment in Europe. Here at home, media outlets like Fox News and conservative radio foment further resentment and division.

No, You Are Not Allowed to Make Decisions About Your Body

Abortion and birth control have been two of the most divisive issues in our culture for several decades, with the tide turning against abortion rights with the recent wave of state legislation limiting, abusing and nearly abolishing them in many states. This might be the most precarious time for Roe v. Wade since it was passed in 1973, and the battles are heating up.

Recently legislation has been proposed that requires women to wait three days and submit to counseling from a biased, unlicensed counselor before getting an abortion, prove that her miscarriage was organic vs. induced, and get abortion insurance in case she is impregnated during a rape, to name a few bills on the landscape attacking a woman’s right to have an abortion. The divide goes nearly straight down the political aisle, pitting Democrats against Republicans in an ongoing feud.

The battle doesn’t stop at abortion. Birth control is under fire, too. Recently, in the context of talking about climate change, Al Gore said,

“One of the things we could do about it is to change the technologies, to put out less of this pollution, to stabilize the population, and one of the principal ways of doing that is to empower and educate girls and women. You have to have ubiquitous availability of fertility management so women can choose how many children to have, the spacing of the children. You have to lift child-survival rates so that parents feel comfortable having small families. And most important, you have to educate girls and empower women. And that’s the most powerful leveraging factor, and when that happens, then the population begins to stabilize and societies begin to make better choices and more balanced choices.” (h/t Grist)

Conservative writers immediately characterized Gore’s speech as instructing families to have fewer children to help the environment, and used it to underline extreme conservative agendas against birth control. In a video clip in Grist’s article, Texas State Rep. Wayne Christian states, “Well of course it’s a war on birth control.”

This is an issue that clashing tribes will never come to a consensus on. Whichever viewpoint is currently legally right will always be hammered on by the opposing one. The fight will go on indefinitely.

Same Sex Marriages are Not Real

The battle over same sex marriage and gay rights, including health benefits, medical power of attorney, and equal treatment with heterosexual unions has been ongoing. Individual states have granted legality to same sex marriages and then taken it away, while the measure comes to ballot in other states and is voted down. Some corporations offer same sex benefits, while state and federal governments take it away.

The very definition of marriage is at stake, and until recently, neither side wanted to concede. However, New York passed a same-sex marriage law in 2011 (which was previously voted down), becoming the largest state to do so, to date.  Republican Senator Mark J. Grisanti, who campaigned on the promise to oppose same sex marriages, made a surprising about-face, admitted he had been wrong and changed his vote to support the same-sex marriage legislation.

Grisanti told The New York Times, “I apologize for those who feel offended,” Mr. Grisanti said, adding, “I cannot deny a person, a human being, a taxpayer, a worker, the people of my district and across this state, the State of New York, and those people who make this the great state that it is the same rights that I have with my wife.” Although only five states currently allow same-sex marriages, perhaps this marks a shift toward the middle on this issue.

There is No Such Thing as Climate Change

Scientists have been cautioning us for years that our current state of energy consumption and carbon emissions were irreparably damaging our environment. Climate deniers have long scoffed at this idea on little more than ideological grounds, but recently several have changed their viewpoints and admitted that climate change is a real danger.

However, members of the Republican party have denounced climate concerns, reigniting fierce debate. In March 2011, the GOP voted down an amendment to legislation they were attempting to pass that overruled the EPA’s assertion that global temperatures were rising and humans were the likely reason. Democrats suggested putting in language that simply explained climate change, but Republicans quashed it. Three times.

The Kyoto Protocol spurred countries to cut their carbon emissions, but the 2009 Copenhagen summit failed to continue the momentum, leaving the issue more up in the air than before with no set guidelines or penalties.

Will We Ever Be One Nation? Indivisible? With Liberty and Justice for All?

As a nation, are we moving forward, or back? Some days, it’s hard to tell. We’ve drawn lines crisscrossing our nation, our society, our towns, our friends and families. As members of many tribes, we are fractured, facing opposition on many fronts.

Our tribes have again become isolating and divisive, as they were at the start of our country and our culture, bringing us full circle. Religion and politics have driven wedges between people that are so divisive that it’s hard to see where we could come together as a society again. Lawrence Brown believes that tribal politics “threaten to roll back the hard-won progress of centuries.” Political gridlock in recent months – from holding up federal budget passage over Planned Parenthood funding to the current Congressional impasse over the debt ceiling – makes the depth of the division all too clear.

As we stay within our tribes, many times, so does the next generation. Although in many ways, we need the comfort of our tribes, our society can only move forward if we can see past our own small groups and their mindsets. Perhaps our fitful social landscape is a sign of a breakthrough pending – but perhaps we are headed straight for a wall.

Brown said, “We can’t depend on catastrophes and terrorists to bring us together. Love is a better social adhesive than grief. No one can claim to love their country if they hate half the people in it.”

Images: ginnerobot, szeke, andi.vs.zf, jonmatthew photography, Balaji.b, ^riza^

The post The Divided States of America appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s 5 o’clock in D.C. Perhaps our gridlocked politicians could try humanity’s oldest social lubricant.

“It’s a lot easier to demonize someone you don’t know well than someone you do know well,” says Terry Nelson, a major Republican operative. Ain’t that the truth. If you believe the cable news channels, the Democrats and Republicans speak completely different languages with each one believing the other is channeling the devil.

As any couple’s therapist will tell you, one of the best ways to bring people together is to focus on what they have in common and try to strengthen this ‘bond’ so that other issues can be amicably worked out. We may not be at the point where we need to assign each congressional committee a shrink, but I could not think of a better time for our representatives to share their mutual love of extracurricular activities with members of the opposing party – just not at the taxpayers’ expense.

The pleasure I am referring to is wine and the Congressional Wine Caucus is a great model for cooperation. Set up by Mike Thompson (D- CA), this bipartisan group works on a host of issues like interstate shipping with a general consensus that transcends party lines.

I asked Thompson if he has noticed the spirit of collaboration found in the Congressional Wine Caucus seeping into other areas of policy among members. “You chat socially and I think it improves your working relationship with your colleagues down the line.”

Wine and politics, the perfect pairing.

I also talked to several of the Beltway’s palates, from different points on the political spectrum, to see if they ever share their Ridge Zins or Conterno Barolos with ‘the enemy.’

“Actually, I do, a good amount,” said Jeffrey Browne, a wine drinker since his student Eurail days and a principle at CAPAD Communications, a consulting firm that works with Democratic candidates. “I have some of my most interesting conversations with Republicans.”

But wait, what do Republican enophiles have to say about this? Nelson concurs with Browne, “It’s interesting for me to hear their perspective on what’s going on. In those discussions people try to be pretty objective of what’s going on in their party.”

Dan Hazelwood, who has been involved in Republican politics almost as long as he’s been a wine drinker, admits, “I tend to socialize more with Republicans but drinking wine is not necessarily a partisan perspective.” Doug Heye, former Director of the Republican National Committee and current Burgundy fiend, shares the feeling: “There is nothing partisan about it.”

I  met Heye on a trip to Champagne in 2008. As a long time San Francisco resident, my political bubble was shattered not only by Heye but by Sam Dealey, a self described “libertarian conservative” and prominent D.C. journalist who, on this same journey, became my late night drinking partner in crime. Meeting Heye and developing a friendship with Dealey opened my eyes to the “other side” – and helped inspire this article.

Which begs the question, can wine serve as a mediator of sorts between opposing political views?

“It’s an icebreaker, “ Hazelwood acknowledged, “It creates a bridge to have a dialogue without rancor.” Khalid Pitts, owner of Cork Wine Bar in Washington D.C. told me, “Any day you can walk through Cork and see people from all sides talking politics or about what they’re doing this weekend. You see staffers with other staffers coming across the aisle.” Keep in mind, many who are serving in both houses have started off their careers as staffers.

Richard Schlackman of RMS Associates, a fiscally moderate and socially liberal Democrat from San Francisco, can often be found sharing a bottle of Spanish wine with Alex Castellanos, a top Republican media consultant, when he is in the nation’s capital.

“Just a couple of weeks ago I was at Cork Wine Bar discussing  politics and the state of the world with Alex. We agreed upon how good the 1991 Lopez de Heredia was.”

Is that all they could see eye to eye on?

“ While you may not share everything, you share a love that transcends politics,” Dan Kully, a progressive Democratic and partner at Kully Hall said.

“It’s a good medium to have a conversation whether it’s about politics, sex or the local ball team,” Browne says.

Dealey concurs. “Any time you can connect with someone on a personal level you get beyond the colleague relationship to friend status.”

It seems oenophiles on both sides of the aisle can agree wine is a bridge to facilitating dialog. Perhaps the next budget debate should start off with a bottle of Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs and depending on how long it goes, finish with a Hunt Country ice wine from New York. For the love of Bacchus, please crack open a bottle, give a glass to your nearest adversary, and start talking.

Image: Jenny Downing

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