…to Drinking Liberally for some time now. You should too, if you’re in Seattle and over 21. (Actually, the Montlake Ale House does let underagers in before 9, so even undergrads can sit in on part of the Tuesday-evening confab.)

I often find myself out of the proverbial league with some of the talkers there. The event’s weekly regulars include some serious politics nerds, guys (and a few brave gals) who talk politics with the same degree of knowledge and enthusiasm with which other guys talk about sports and cars. It’s an astounding thing to see and hear, truly it is.

And it’s what the progressive movement, and the country as a whole, have long needed.

Since before my time, too much of “left” politics has been a big exercise in demographic segmentation (under the guise of “identity politics”), in which an insular subculture got to proclaim its righteous superiority through confrontative protests and oversimplistic us-vs.-them ideologies. The DL folks aren’t like that; well at least not mostly. Instead, they parse, they research, they study. They enthusiastically follow the early returns on out-of-state primary races. They embrace politics as the world’s biggest “massively multi-user” computer game, albeit one with real winners/losers and real heroes/villains.

This particular kind of passion, a passion for the complex mechanics of politics instead of base-emotional posturing, means a lotta liberals are finally, FINALLY getting serious about long-term progress, about winning not just elections but also the hearts-‘n-minds of the populace.

It also means you’d better get ready for some serious fireworks this fall.