New Haven creator of 'Being Liberal' Facebook page comes out from behind screen

Green Well Cafe, New Haven: Wojtek Wacowski has a wildly popular Facebook page called facebook.com/beingliberal.org. Mara Lavitt/New Haven Register2/18/13 less Green Well Cafe, New Haven: Wojtek Wacowski has a wildly popular Facebook page called facebook.com/beingliberal.org. Mara Lavitt/New ... more Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close New Haven creator of 'Being Liberal' Facebook page comes out from behind screen 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

NEW HAVEN -- It's one of the most popular political pages on Facebook. Called "Being Liberal," it's become a social media magnet for the left. And it's run out of the administrator's home and the various coffee shops he inhabits.

Until now, he's been known on Facebook as [W].

Wojtek Wacowski, who lives in Fair Haven, is coming out from behind the screen. But, he insists, "Being Liberal" is not about him.

"It doesn't matter who I am, it doesn't matter what I think. I have accidentally created a soapbox. It gives me the unique opportunity to interact with people in Tulsa, Okla., or St. Louis, Mo.," or those in the Bible Belt, who feel isolated from others who see the world the way they do.

Wacowski calls himself "an information DJ, because in social media, you are a discotheque and you play music. ... People will only come if they like the music that you play."

And he backs up his popularity with numbers from his page: "570,574 Likes, 1,001,546 Talking About This."

It's not the "likes" that matter, he says. Plenty of pages have more of those, and they can be inflated by advertising. It's the second number, which is the total of those who are somehow interacting with the page -- commenting, tagging it, sharing it or mentioning it in their own posts.

He says his 1 million total is "10 times better than the Facebook average."

Most pages have far more "likes" than people "talking about this." The Huffington Post, a liberal bastion, has more than 850,000 likes, but only 216,000 "talking about this." "Being Conservative" has 2.6 million likes, but just 190,000 interacting.

"I challenge anybody on Facebook to show me any page that has better statistics," Wacowski says.

Wacowski, 52, was born in Gdansk, Poland, and immigrated to the United States in early 2001. He's sailed around the world and worked with the Amistad America organization. He started "Being Liberal" in 2009 after "my Facebook was bombarded by a site called 'Being Conservative' with the face of Ronald Reagan."

Since Wacowski considers Reagan the worst American president, it wasn't very good marketing. So he started his site.

"The surprising part was in the first week I gained very quickly my first 10,000 subscribers and from that point, I realized that there was a niche," he says.

He says 87 percent of his followers are American. During the Arab Spring, however, he suddenly attracted Egyptians. He draws from many sources -- the New York Times, the Nation, the New Republic -- but much is contributed by subscribers. There's a hunger for a liberal discussion space, he says. "People very often are not aware of all the liberal, left side of American politics."

When he asks what being liberal means to people, he gets many answers. He considers the best one to be a quote from President John F. Kennedy:

"Someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad."

He encourages two-way conversation, which isn't easy in social media. Pointing to his laptop, he says, "We have the communication power to get the whole world working together," but instead people look at "smiling kittens."

"Being Liberal" isn't just on Facebook, though that's where most interactions take place. Check out almost any social media site -- Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest -- and you'll find it. Wacowski makes no money from his project; he earns a living by consulting. He gets some volunteer help for tasks such as moderating comments.

Among the popular "Being Liberal" topics lately are health care policy, right-to-work laws and immigration. One of his personal issues is the high number of people in prison, with the U.S. incarcerating one-fourth of the world's prisoners.

Another popular topic is "gun safety regulations." He prefers the term to "gun control," which he said evokes a negative reaction.

"I think Newtown has totally changed the discussion. What I see, however, is public attention is always going down eventually." Wacowski's role is to keep the issues before the public, he says.

"I cannot change anything. What I can do is remind people about those things."

He wouldn't name a current liberal, but said someone who isn't is President Barack Obama. "I think that he's extremely effective and a very good politician, but he is very much willing to compromise ... to be president of all Americans," so he doesn't push for liberal positions.

"My little bleeding liberal heart would like to see him as being more liberal," Wacowski says. He does credit Obama with holding "Fireside Hangouts" on Google Plus, emulating the "fireside chats" of the president Wacowski sees as our most liberal: Franklin D. Roosevelt.

"America got great in my opinion because of FDR," Wacowski says.

It's his policies -- Social Security, banking protections, the right to unionize, among others -- that have been the targets of conservative politicians.

The rollback in social policies is a big reason why Wacowski's main agenda is the 2014 elections.

"If we want to break the obstruction of the GOP in Congress, we have to take the House."

Call Ed Stannard at 203-789-5743.