Laughin’ With Yo Homies

by digby

I write a lot about tribal identity, specifically conservative tribal identity, and I think it’s an issue we need to think about in order to understand how our politics really work. Mostly, I have felt throughout my adult life, since Reagan anyway, that I didn’t have much of a tribe, certainly not a political tribe. The left has been defined for so many years by the exaggerated cartoon image created by the wingnuts that it’s often been difficult to even admit you are a liberal, much less publicly identify and congregate with others explicitly on that basis. You’d pick an issue or a candidate, maybe. You’d speak in a sort of code. But you rarely gathered in one place as liberals or revel joyously in calling yourself one.

That’s changing. Last night I saw Laughing Liberally here in LA and I now think that for the first time in a long time people are willing to assume the mantle and be proud liberals for its own sake. This virtual bloggy thing of ours is translating into actual human interaction. And that means we can change our politics.

Granted, LA is a liberal town so it’s not shocking that you could gather an auditorium full of people for political comedy. But there was more to it than that. There was a celebratory vibe in the air — and a very nice feeling of explicit liberal solidarity based on our shared worldview.

A couple of observations:

Lieberman is tremendously unpopular but Dem bashing in general is not as popular as it used to be among liberals. We’re starting to take ownership of the party, I think. Good for us.

People are far more aware of the details of current political intrigue than I realized. I’m assuming this is because of the blogosphere and Air America (the LA station that carries it heavily promoted this event.) Also good for us.

If I have one request of the comedians on this tour, all of whom were great, it would be that they start thinking right now about some John McCain jokes. It’s never to early to start the political ridicule. Indeed, we need to get going on all the potential GOP candidates. The Republicans are probably funding an entire think tank study on how to ritually humiliate ours.

Laughing Liberally is great fun. I hope they are able to expand this tour and take it to some places where it liberals really need the laughs. But I have to say that I’m grateful to them for bringing it here and offering all of us Hollywood Libs (who, along with Boston and San Francisco, all the red state conservatives blame for the destruction of civilization as we know it) a chance to congregate and laugh our asses off about politics. Everybody needs to get together with their tribe once in a while, see each other face to face and share the same space. It feels good. We should do it more often.

Laughing Liberally will be at Yearly Kos in Vegas and then in Boston. Go see it if you can.

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