Meta Talk Time. How do we build a grassroots progressive coalition in the Crescent City?

I don't think we need to get into too much detail when describing what is meant by 'progressive.'

For me, it means demolishing the notion in this city that people who care about social justice and people who care about tax dollar efficiency must be in mutually exclusive groups.

Barack Obama just won the Presidency on a general platform that combined transparency, competence, and social justice.

We can replicate that on the municipal level and I think we have to.

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Cliff gets at something good in the comments portion of this post.

I think it's hard to organize the big picture. I got myself pretty frustrated at times trying to figure out ways to get the big picture message across. Ultimately, I decided that I could be a more effective advocate for the kind of change I believe in by actually engaging in an issue, by injecting a progressive perspective into the repetitive back-and-forth "discourse" that has characterized the political arena.

But Cliff is right, the big picture is what is ultimately important.

The question I've been struggling with all along is how do we get there.

At some point, you've just got to dive in.

By engaging a variety of singular issues, we can build loose coalitions that can be tied together to form a cogent vision for progressive change.

That is why I'm anxious to see how I can now contribute to the fight against the destruction of Lower Mid City.

And there will be plenty of others after that too.

One key, I think, is to figure out how to translate our online communities and our online tools into live direct action. New Orleans progressive bloggers have had some very notable successes, but now is the time to push forward.