Reading the thoughts of so many progressive community leaders is thought provoking, humbling and inspiring. Thank
you for giving me the opportunity to contribute. Others have commented on local trends, candidates and opportunities
for strategic and electoral victories in 2018 better than I could, so I will address “the State of Tampa Politics” from a few
personal, hopefully useful, perspectives.
The first is offering a practical point of comparison. My wife is from San Diego (and I lived there for several years before
we moved to Tampa a few years ago). My wife has remarked on more than one occasion that Tampa *today* feels
extraordinarily like San Diego did *20 years ago* growing up as a teenager. The comment caused me to look into the
history of San Diego and its development, successes and failures – and there are an incredible number of parallels and
takeaways.
San Diego did revitalize its urban core, but it also failed to create anything resembling a real public transportation
system; it has struggled with its relationships to professional sports teams; it features a subtropical climate tied to
beaches that benefit from conventions and tourism; it touches a major military installation; it has strong links to nearby
agricultural production; it struggles with overdevelopment (especially single family suburban homes) and gentrification;
and it has only a handful of Fortune 100 companies. (Any of this sound familiar?) I would urge activists and experts to
study this amazing “glimpse into the future” in order to produce a blueprint for Tampa that draws upon the ample
lessons learned in San Diego.
Second, we have the chance to do things differently in 2018 than we have done in the past. In politics, messaging is the
game-changer. Winning requires people to buy into your position not only intellectually, but also emotionally; voters
have to intuitively understand what makes your value system and choices different. In order to affect change, finding
the answers is often of secondary importance to asking the right questions. Archimedes famously said: "Give me a lever
long enough and a fulcrum on which to place it, and I shall move the world." What is true in physics holds true in
politics… so perhaps we should be asking: What is our lever? What is the fulcrum?
I believe the fulcrum is the progressive movement itself. If pressed for a definition of ‘progressive’ – especially a simple,
workable one that can be presented as 30 second ‘elevator pitch’ – I would explain it as three basic principles:
PROGRESSIVISM
(1) While scarcity is an illusion, self-sufficiency is a myth.
(2) Embrace change of societal morals as new research disconfirms the original morals.
(3) Everything consenting adults agree to do is permitted.
These principles address progressive positions on both an individual and societal level… everything from being for gun
control and for gay marriage to being against rape culture and against corporate personhood/Citizens United, from
environmentalism, the Fight for 15, as well as securing universal healthcare, adequate public education and vital social
services. A core tenet of Progressivism is that society does not lack the means to ensure social justice, but rather the will.
You shouldn’t have to pay (literally and figuratively) for the privilege of being a healthy, happy, well-adjusted person –
that is our birthright.
The simpler and starker terms by which we are able to characterize differences, the more effective our messaging
becomes: Liberals believe in scarcity (there is not enough to go around); Libertarians believe in Self-sufficiency (we can
go it alone); and Republicans believe in both scarcity and self-sufficiency, as well as the need to control consent and
dictate social norms.
The progressive candidate is one who empowers individuals to exchange and share resources of all kinds in a community
where individuals are free to pursue their own best version of themselves.
Not coincidentally, the current Republican war on science is a way to disrupt the very change we seek (basically, by
destroying various means of public discourse/research and critical, fact-based thinking in general). We must continue to
focus on doing the very research that deepens our understanding of ourselves and shapes our environment.
Our progressive principles will illuminate the
Our progressive principles will illuminate the various goals of our political movement in 2018. However, the actual force
that will move the earth, our leverage, is us. People power. The idea – no, the emotional realization – I want to leave you
with, dear reader, is this: the only currency that activists have in abundance is relationships. We spend our days and
weeks out there fighting for each other and for the common good, however we end up defining it personally. Our word
is our bond. If we show up and stand with our friends in *their* hours of need, then we create a reservoir of goodwill
that nourishes a desert. Give Freely of your Self, invest, believe, care. Listen and learn. Love.
I cannot promise any of you victory, but I can promise you this: one day, you will find yourself in a battle that threatens
to overwhelm you, and you will call for help… and the larger the reservoir we have built together, the more sisters and
brothers will suddenly be beside you, behind you and in front of you. We are not alone in this fight. We have each other,
and the harder we fight for our principles, the more of our fellow citizens will wake up and maybe decide to join the
fight. It’s up to us to ensure that when the tsunami comes, it lifts all boats.
Keep fighting. Marcus Klebe
