It was huuuuuuge!
Lefty party people celebrated Independence Day early with a 1970s-themed “Impeachment Party” at the Longbow Pub and Pantry on July 2. The shindig sought to poke fun at a politically tense climate, but also highlight what organizers see as the eerie similarities of Donald Trump and Richard Nixon — who ultimately resigned over the Watergate scandal — said one party-thrower.
“Alarming threads of a narrative are being drawn together and we wanted at the very least to use Independence Day to highlight another summer that ended with the truth coming out,” said Bay Ridgite Rebecca Brodsky, with Fight Back Bay Ridge. “The political atmosphere is so serious and we kind of wanted to have a fun community event and poke fun at Bay Ridge’s history, which is mostly associated with the ’70s.”
Donald Trump’s presidency has been clouded in controversy, with a criminal probe into whether Trump’s advisers colluded with the Russian government to undermine the 2016 presidential election.
And with a daily drip of political conundrums in the news, local progressives felt their neighbors earned a little fun and games, said another activist.
“A number of serious things have been going on and while impeachment is a very serious act, we felt it was time to have a party,” said Sally McMahon, the head of Fight Back Bay Ridge. “We figured it was timely for the Fourth of July weekend.”
Locals busted out their bell bottoms and tie-dyed T-shirts, enjoying “impeachmint” cocktails or a “Comey” — an old fashioned named for former head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation James Comey, who was suddenly fired by Trump in May.
Themed fare was also served, including the “boneless, spineless, souless chicken wings” (named for Paul Ryan) or the “covfefe” burger.
Party-goers guessed at whether Richard Nixon or Donald Trump said various quotes, and the winner snagged a groovy Lava Lamp.
But the get-together ultimately served as an outlet for progressives in a neighborhood stereotyped as a bastion of conservatism, said Brodsky.
“Bay Ridge is a complicated place where it has a historically conservative feeling to it,” said Brodsky. “But there’s more and more of a progressive voice, and we were really happy to string those people together.”
