My Friend Mark Nash

I’ve known Mark Nash for seven years. We met as volunteer producers at TBCN, the local community access TV station.  

Hillsborough County broken down by districts. 

He’s been involved in campaign work I think at least as long as I’ve known him. Now he’s running for public office himself.  


I'm of the general opinion that local politics is where change really begins, and lots of the people I encountered at Mark's campaign kick off Friday in Riverview agreed. 

Volunteer Joan Williams checks party goers in. 

With local-minded ladies Jen Greenfield, a social media coach, and Michelle Kenoyer.

Angie Angel, the past president of the East Hillsborough County Democratic Club with two former Florida gubernatorial candidates, former Florida CFO Alex Sink and husband Bill McBride.

I thought my education was lacking since I had just one semester-long civics class in 8th grade. Tom Morgan (no relation), Vice President of the College Democrats at USF, said Florida public schools don’t even have that.  

“I had no idea of the difference of the political parties,” he said. So I was curious – how did he get enmeshed so young? 

Tom explained that he started at USF as a history major during the 2008 election cycle. But he became so interested in the excitement of the election and his American government class that he switched his focus to political science. 

He’s currently pursuing his master’s and hopes to go on to earn a Ph.d. 

Grace and Charles McComas of Seffner are busy volunteers in their town’s library and community alliance. But that wasn't always the case. 

Grace said that as “a mother, a nurse working nights all my life,” she didn’t have time to be involved until her retirement. Now land use in Seffner is among their top priorities.  

"People don't usually get involved until it affects them,” said Charles, who is retired from MacDill AFB. 

“You can't remake wetlands,” Grace said. “God made the wetlands. You can't move them. We have to protect them." Grace is supporting Mark because she said “He can see the future but also what we have to preserve." 

Political consultant Victor DiMaio and Julie Jenkins.

I have great pride for my friend and his goal to represent his district, but you don't have to befriend your public officials in order to get to know them before or after the race. 

All you have to do is pay attention, maybe ask a few questions. What better way to hold them accountable? They can't do their job if we constituents don't do ours. 

Hail to Another Chief

France got a new president today, but even between my hyperconsumption of news & avid Francophile-ness, I only mildly paid attention to the French election. 


Most Americans I've spoken to are completely unconcerned and unaware. I've noticed that political disinterest starts at home, and the further away a place or culture the less passion it generates. 


Yet I aspire to be a woman & (working) journalist who's seasoned in politics, locally and otherwise. At this point though I feel like the newbie in Primary Colors waiting to get burned.  

Matthew Fraser

Still, the idea that international politics would benefit all Americans is in my head. So I reached out to a Facebook friend, Professor Matthew Fraser, a former journalist who teaches in the global communications department at the American University of Paris. (Not to be confused with my future alma mater AU in DC). Edited for brevity & the American attention span. 

Tampa Do-Gooder: Please explain the significance of foreign politics to Americans (who may or may not pay attention to politics in their own country)? 

Matthew Fraser: Following the Second World War, the United States was unquestionably the main global power, facing a rival only in the Soviet Union. Since the 1940s, the world has been an “American” one. The pervasive influence of American culture — from Mickey Mouse to McDonald’s — is a sign of American dominance. Americans are the Romans of the modern world.

Oscar on the banks of the Seine, from Fraser's blog This Much I Know

TDG: To me it seems that it's not so much that Americans don't care, but that they are overwhelmed or intimidated by learning about (including traveling to) other countries. I'd like your input on that thought, as a professor who's lived in multiple countries.

MF: One of the drawbacks to being “Romans” is that Americans are primarily focused on their own concerns and interests, their global dominance has paradoxically engendered an indifference to the world beyond America — at least to the nuances of other countries and cultures. America tends to regard the world in terms of its interests. This causes resentment in other countries, and often leads to the regrettable stereotype that Americans are ignorant and uncultured about the world. 

It’s the curse of all dominant nations. The French even today are relatively indifferent to the world beyond France. The French, like Americans, are notorious for their poor foreign linguistic skills. This doubtless can be explained by the fact that France, like the United States, was once a great empire and dominant culture.  

TDG: Does the media (both American and foreign press) have a role in educating Americans on global politics?

MF: The American media are largely regarded as being oriented towards “American” stories, and when they turn their attention to the international sphere they tend to see things through an “American” prism. This can irritate people in other countries. CNN was for a long  time accused of this Americanization of global news. That has changed to some degree. 

Americans are also consumers of American movies, TV shows, newspapers and magazines. The percentage of foreign news and cultural products consumed by Americans is tiny, especially compared with other countries. Again, this is comes with global dominance. It’s very different for American expats living in other countries, of course, but Americans in the  United States don’t generally have a large appetite for foreign sources of information and distraction, with the possible exception of elites in New York, Chicago and San Francisco. 

TDG: What do people living in France think of their new president? Is it a comparable pendulum swing like Barack Obama after 2 terms of George Bush?

MF: The French are romantic about leftist political victories because they evoke France’s historical rupture with the French Revolution in 1789. Since then there have been two Frances: conservative Catholic France, and revolutionary Jacobine France. It’s much more acceptable in France to claim allegiance to the the Jacobine tradition because of the historic importance of the French Revolution and the Jacobine system of republican government France has had for most of the past two centuries. 

French Catholic France was discredited during the Second World War after the Vichy episode and Nazi collaboration. This explains why far-right parties like the Front National are considered to be a threat in France, while far-left parties, even Communist, are considered to be a legitimate part of the French political system. [Outgoing French president] Nicolas Sarkozy’s party is between the two, largely Gaullist but also representing the “bourgeoisie” in France, in other words a coalition of conservative nationalists and economic elites. In America, Sarkozy would be a Republican.  

In that sense, one cannot compare [new president] Hollande with Obama. In France, Obama would not be a particularly “left” politician. He would be at the center, even a little to the right of center. Francois Hollande enjoyed the support of the Communists and far-left movement. Those kinds of political parties would not even have a voice in American politics. 

France and America, historically, are great friends and allies because they were the two great nations born of the Enlightenment philosophy of the 18th century based on universal values about individual rights and democratic institutions. They are also two great nations born of violent revolutions. At the same time,  this linkage has also made France and America great rivals, because both nations have aspired to grandeur. France was a powerful nation for centuries, and French the language of international diplomacy, until the 19th century. Since then, the British and Americans have dominated the world. This has not always sat well with the French, hence the familiar resentment in France towards all things “Anglo-Saxons”. These sentiments have deep historical roots. France and America are “freres ennemis” -- brother enemies. It’s an amicable rivalry, but a rivalry nonetheless.  

Here's Your Sign

Ah, vacation.

At American University

Politics & Prose

National Museum of Natural History

EMILY's List

Former Tampa City Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena and Stephanie Schriock

“Early money is like yeast,” EMILY's List president Stephanie Schriock told me Sunday, explaining the organization's acronym and their theory on fundraising, which is basically that it takes money to make even more money. 


EMILY's List began in 1985, a basement full of  women in Washington D.C., pooling their resources and address books to raise money for pro-choice Democratic candidates. 


According to their website they've raised over $82,705,257 for candidates since they started. Schriock was in town raising money for their training & recruitment programs, open to women in local, state and national politics or aspiring to be. 


Despite growing into one of the biggest political action committees, women make up only 17% of Congress. (While women make up 50.7% of this country, according to a 2009 Census estimate.) How can politicians represent the public if they don't resemble the public? 


I had such a great conversation with Stephanie about the work she does at EMILY's List that I produced an extended interview as well as a short radio version that aired Monday on 88.5 WMNF.