Commie Pinko Cocktails for Your Debate Watching Pleasure

Updated July 25 to include Aliza Worthington’s cocktail contribution.

Donald Trump and his white nationalist Republican party have no policy, no new ideas, and no vision for America’s future – other than to do whatever it takes to amass larger fortunes for their benefactors on the backs of the rest of us.

You can tell by how vehemently they try to equate four freshman Congresswomen as the face of the Democratic Party, while screaming that we’re all a bunch of socialists. Or Communists.

(It’s not clear if they understand what either term actually means, since they use them interchangeably. They just seem to know that it’s very, very Bad.)

Like this:

Or this

Our opposition to our socialist colleagues isn’t because of their race, religion, or gender. It’s because their policies are dangerous, wrong, and would destroy America. pic.twitter.com/0rHcmL3j0G

— Rep. Liz Cheney (@RepLizCheney) July 16, 2019

Greg Sargent at the Washington Post points out that these attacks “are meant to scare college-educated whites, particularly women, out of voting Democratic… and supercharge Trump’s working-class white base in those blue-wall states, making an electoral college victory possible even if Trump loses the national popular vote by a bigger margin.”

I am amazed that with all the challenges we face in 2019, a political party would turn to a tried and true playbook that was outdated decades ago. From 1919 through the 1960s and ’70s, from the New Deal to Medicare, every time there was a progressive proposal that attempted to help people, conservatives have labeled it as scary, scary “socialism.”

If You Can’t Beat ‘Em…

I think we may as well embrace the right’s characterization of us all as radical leftists, by serving one of these lovely classic cocktails for your next Pursuit of Happiness Hour, Debate Watching Party, or day drinking during Mueller’s testimony. They’re easy, festive, and make a statement: “The GOP is devoid of ideas, so they resort to name calling.”

We present for your enjoyment:

Commie Pinko Cocktails

Kir 
This is a simple and elegant cocktail, and since it originated in France, it could also be drunk by our friends in the U.K. as a protest against Brexit. The basic drink consists of:

4 oz. white wine
1 oz. creme de cassis

Pour the creme de cassis in a wine glass or champagne flute, top with wine, and voila! You have a pretty little cocktail with a pinkish hue. You can go full red Commie by substituting Beaujolais for the white wine (yes, this version is actually called a Kir Communiste!) … or make it really special, by using champagne or another sparkling wine (which makes it a Kir Royale).

Cape Cod
Another simple classic, with just two ingredients (essential if you’re focused on hearing Warren’s latest plan or watching for any new fireworks):

1 1/2 oz. vodka
4 oz. cranberry juice

Pour the vodka and cranberry juice in a highball glass filled with ice. Garnish with a lime wedge, if you have one.

If you want to get fancy, you can take that vodka and cranberry juice, add in some lime juice and triple sec, and make Carrie Bradshaw proud by serving a Cosmopolitan. Here’s Wikipedia’s take on the recipe:

1/2 oz. fresh lime juice
1 oz. cranberry juice
1/2 oz. Cointreau (or another orange flavored liquere)
1 1/2 oz. vodka (Wikipedia suggests Vodka Citron)

Add all ingredients into cocktail shaker filled with ice. Shake well and double strain into large cocktail glass. Garnish with lime wheel.

Pinko Grapefruit
Our own Aliza Worthington contributed this cocktail to the list, which makes use of a newish flavored liquor and a classic mixer you may not have thought about in a while. But Aliza assures us that we can find Fresca in most grocery stores:

1 1/2 oz. Deep Eddy Pink Grapefruit vodka
Fresca

Pour the vodka into a highball glass with ice and top with the Fresca. It’s refreshing, it’s pink – and it’s delicious.

Pink Lady
Since we’re dealing with a political trope that dates back to Prohibition, why not try a cocktail that dates back at least to the same era? This one gets its pinko-ish hue from a few dashes of grenadine. It also comes out frothy from the addition of egg whites (so is not something you’ll want to serve to anyone who might worry about that, or guests who happen to be vegan).

1 1/2 oz. gin
4 dashes grenadine
1 egg white

Shake ingredients very well with ice and strain into cocktail glass. Garnish with a cherry.

Pink Squirrel

There are a lot of variations on this recipe on the web, including a version with ice cream and an origin story dates it to the 1970s (perhaps the version with ice cream; I can remember the women in my family drinking these in the 1960s and there was no ice cream to be found).<

The drink gets its color from a ruby-red cordial called crème de Noyaux. If you can’t find that, you can get the same effect with Amaretto plus a drop of red food coloring. Both liqueurs taste like almonds, but are made of apricot pits (that’s got to be an answer to a trivia quiz some day!)

This classic version (sans ice cream) is easy to whip up without the hassle of using a blender:

1 oz crème de Noyaux or Amaretto
1 oz crème de cacao
1 oz heavy cream
Shake with ice, strain into a cocktail glass and serve.

And there you have it: Enough drink choices to make your debate watching party a truly pink experience.