Speeches

Grassroots Politics in the United States
Remarks by Ambassador Patricia L. Herbold
Fulbright Association Annual Dinner
April 21, 2006

Thank you, Dr. Pakir, for the kind introduction.  Thank you, Professor Ang; we are all grateful for your work as President of the Fulbright Association and to you and your colleagues for organizing tonight's dinner.  I’d like to offer a warm welcome to High Commissioner Tan and our other distinguished guests who are here this evening.

Fulbright is a name synonymous with excellence.  Having met several of you this evening, and looking around the room, I see that tonight's assembly reflects the program's high ideals.  Indeed, as I begin my remarks, I feel a bit of trepidation because I’m sure there are others here who can address the topic of grassroots politics superbly.  So I’ll offer some thoughts and then we can open up the floor to questions and discussion, which may be the most interesting part of the evening – especially with politics on everyone’s minds right now in Singapore.

It is an honor for me to be here with you tonight and to speak to you about a subject that is very important to me, grassroots politics in the United States.  A formal definition of grassroots politics might be "engaging in political advocacy (whether to call for change or promote the status quo) through bottom-up demand from voters and community members, rather than existing political leaders directing the process in a top-down fashion."  For some, grassroots politics is a personal, hands-on effort to deal with an issue very important to that individual.  My involvement began innocently enough twenty-five years ago concerning the issue of boats and recreational vehicles (RVs) parked in neighborhood driveways – but more on that later. 

Tonight I’ll start with an example of the impact of grassroots politics on the founding of the United States, and then illustrate elements of grassroots politics in America using some of my own experiences in both non-partisan positions and partisan operations.  I’ll conclude with a look ahead at how emerging technologies are changing the tools of grassroots politics with amazing speed.

Grassroots Politics in American History

So, stepping back to the early days of the United States, Senator Albert Beveridge of Indiana is often given credit for coining the term “grassroots" in connection with politics when he said at the 1912 Bull Moose Party convention that, "this party has come from the grass roots. It has grown from the soil of peoples' hard necessities."

Actually, grassroots politics predate the good Senator's words by more than a century.  For America, grassroots politics date back to our revolution against the British crown, when many of our citizens rose up in opposition to an overbearing government and started the process that resulted in the founding of the United States.  The Boston Tea Party in 1773 was an early example of American grassroots activism, when colonists protesting taxation without representation dumped forty-five tons of tea into Boston Harbor.

You might say their actions caused quite a ripple….

Anyway, the British were not amused, and the British parliament promptly passed several laws, including one that closed Boston Harbor until the tea had been paid for.  The colonists dubbed these laws the "Intolerable Acts" and their enactment united the colonies against Britain.  Committees of colonials convened the First Continental Congress in 1774 to discuss how to assert their rights with the British government.  You know the rest of the story as well as I do.  That’s the power of the people – the strength of grassroots activism.

My Introduction to Grassroots Politics

As I mentioned, boats and RVs got me interested in politics, however indirectly.  Our family lived in Montgomery, Ohio, and all of the deeds for the property in our subdivision contained a restrictive covenant that prohibited the parking of boats and RVs in driveways.  A number of residents were in violation of the covenant and, as a real estate attorney, I felt strongly that the residents should adhere to the covenants they agreed to when they bought their property.  I began attending our homeowners’ association meetings to offer advice on enforcing the covenant, and soon was asked to be an officer of the association, and then became treasurer of the association.  Each officer was expected to chair a committee, and I volunteered for the Community Affairs committee.  My responsibility was to attend Montgomery City Council meetings to monitor actions the Council was considering that might affect our neighborhood.

Much to my surprise, I found it to be a very educational experience.  I learned about the process of enacting legislation at the local level and the use of parliamentary procedure to maintain order in the proceedings.  I also learned that, unless there was an NIMBY (“Not In My Back Yard”) issue being considered, very few citizens attend city council meetings.  In light of that, I soon came to the attention of several council members who asked me why I kept showing up.

As in Singapore, most Americans who go into politics don’t just wake up one day and decide to run for office.  A bit of recruitment is often involved, not necessarily over tea.    One day, the Mayor, who was not running for re-election and the city prosecutor, who attended all council meetings, approached me and asked whether I would consider running for a council seat.   With the Mayor’s offer to be my campaign manager and the support of many of her friends, who were well-respected members of the community, I decided that I would indeed throw my hat in the ring and offer myself up for public service.

This is when I first learned the basics of grassroots politics: organizing a campaign, developing a public identity, and mobilizing support.  The Mayor, as promised, organized my campaign and enlisted the help of many of her friends to serve in various positions.  Working together, we raised money and developed my public identity through a ‘feet and eat’ strategy.   The ‘feet’ part was that well-known residents in each neighborhood were lined up to walk with me and visit each house.  We knocked on doors and I was introduced to their friends and neighbors.  The ‘eat’ part of the strategy was that I also attended countless neighborhood coffees in the evenings after work, where we ate cookies, drank coffee and talked about local issues.  By the time of the election, I didn’t think I could ever look at another cup of coffee.  I did get over that, especially when we moved to Seattle, home of Starbucks.

We increased name recognition by putting “Vote for Herbold” signs in front yards - with permission, of course.  I also distributed emery boards with my name on them on the theory that keeping my name at voters’ fingertips would be an effective marketing strategy.

Another strategy of U.S. politicians is to take advantage of local events to reach the public.  In towns and cities across America, the summer county fair and the Fourth of July festivities are ideal opportunities for grassroots supporters to get out the message about their issue or their candidate.  Among the rides and food stalls at summertime fairs, you will often see booths supporting candidates or particular issues.  They often hand out printed materials or a button or sticker promoting the candidate or cause.  Many Americans celebrate the Fourth of July as a family day with picnics and parades.  Grassroots supporters take advantage of the jovial atmosphere to spread their message, including by marching in parades with their candidate, waving signs and handing out brochures.  This is another way to show their support for the candidate, often in front of a large crowd.

Although the grassroots are by definition at the base of the political pyramid, they are not the opposite of the ‘establishment’ at the top of the pyramid.  Grassroots efforts are defined best by an attitude of political enthusiasm, rather than by political positions.  Many individuals who serve in political office are strong supporters of one or more grassroots causes.   Examples of this in the upcoming elections in the U.S. are immigration and property rights issues.  In fact, some grassroots activists become so well known because of their advocacy on a particular issue that they run for office, and – when elected – are able to champion the grassroots cause or causes that they feel so strongly about. 

After winning my election and serving on the council for two years, my fellow council members elected me as Mayor of Montgomery, a position I held for 2 years until our family moved out of the city limits, which disqualified me from running again.  It was many years later, when my husband and I, then empty nesters, moved to the Seattle area in the State of Washington, that I learned a lot more about the synergies between grassroots and the more formal political establishment.

Transition from Montgomery City Council to King County, WA

After my husband and I moved to Bellevue, Washington, near Seattle, rather than starting another full-time job, I instead began to get involved in community and political activities.  Having been a registered Republican since I first voted at age 18, I sought out and became acquainted with others in the Republican Party.  I got to know many elected officials and their supporters and became actively involved in political campaigns and fund-raising activities.

Over the years, I was asked numerous times to run for political office at the state and national level.  I always declined.  Campaigns in the United States, as elsewhere, are physically grueling and can deteriorate into attacks on the person rather than be a debate on the issues.   I also knew from experience that campaigns are expensive and candidates spend many hours every day “dialing for dollars.”

But I remained involved.  In April, 1999, a U.S. Congresswoman with whom I had become friends, suggested to then-Governor George Bush that I be among fifteen women from around the country who he invited to have lunch with him in Austin, Texas.  Once Governor Bush announced that he was running for President, I joined the Washington State finance committee in support of his candidacy.

After President Bush was elected in 2000, I set out to work with others in King County, the county in Washington in which we lived, to rejuvenate the County Republican Party.

By way of background, King County is the largest county in the state of Washington, home to one third of the state’s population, as well as companies like Microsoft, Boeing and Starbucks.  And yet, it had become painfully obvious to those of us who were working hard to get candidates elected that the County Republican Party of the wealthiest county in the state wasn’t doing all that we hoped it could to help our candidates, financially or in terms of grassroots support.

A little more background:  King County has 17 legislative districts.  Each one is further divided into precincts and there are more than 2000 precincts.  In all states in the United States, the county parties are the recruiters and motivators of the grassroots armies that fight for their party’s candidates and principles.  In a perfect world, each precinct would have a precinct committee officer (PCO) who is elected every two years during regularly scheduled elections.

In King County, the Chairman of the county party is elected by the precinct committee officers at a reorganization meeting held every two years, several months after the PCO’s are elected.

Our efforts to work with the then-current Chairman were unsuccessful.  Many of us in the party were dissatisfied with the direction he was providing.  A group of us, all activists within the party, decided it was time to challenge the leadership.  In the spring of 2002, one of those activists, a person who had managed a former U.S. Senator’s Washington state operations and who had the reputation of being the best grassroots organizer in the state, set up a group of other Republican political activists representing all 17 districts in King County.  I was invited to join the group.

At the first meeting I attended, one of the agenda items was to find a candidate to run for Chairman.  As if on cue, everyone looked at me and asked if I would consider it.  After several days of soul searching, I agreed – on the condition that everyone in that room would work as hard as I would have to in order to defeat an 8-year incumbent and continue to help me if I were elected.  And they all promised they would.

My supporters and I formed the “Grassroots Committee for a strong King County Republican Party”, the mechanism we would use to raise money and to recruit supporters to run for the PCO positions.  Most of the current PCO’s were supporters of the incumbent, so our strategy was to run opponents against them as well as find new candidates for the many precincts which had no PCO.

With any grassroots effort, it is critical to provide motivated supporters with the tools they need to accomplish the task at hand.  In this case, the task was my election.  Our first effort was to show the current PCO’s that, unlike the incumbent, we were there to help them.  They had never been provided with the list of registered Republican voters in their precincts, their constituents, so we bought lists from the County Elections office and mailed them to the PCO’s.  We mailed letters on a regular basis, to achieve the name recognition that is so important.  I delivered my stump campaign speech at Republican events and at every district meeting, sometimes two or three times in one night.  It was a grueling time.  In grassroots, how you deliver your message is sometimes as important as the message itself, so keeping a stump speech “fresh” is both important and a challenge.

A good grassroots campaign is heavy on logistics, and I was fortunate to have lots of volunteers who were willing to help.  Supporters drove me to events so I didn’t have to find parking, a problem in Seattle just like in Singapore.  They made phone calls and sent emails, organized their friends and relatives, helped raise money, attended district meetings with me, and did whatever they could to ease the burden of the campaign for me.

Leaders of a grassroots campaign have to do a bit of a balancing act.  Being organized and having a good "back office" organization are important – but micro-management will kill the very spirit of volunteerism that makes grassroots politicking what it is.  Most grassroots volunteers are motivated by the sense of making a difference on an issue that matters personally to them, so grassroots efforts are most successful if they nurture creativity and initiative.  Volunteers treated as extensions of the will of the leadership will soon lose their enthusiasm for the effort.  I think that’s what happened to the incumbent Chairman.

As I mentioned earlier, support and encouragement from the establishment can give a real boost to a grassroots campaign.  A couple of days before the election for the chairmanship, my husband and I were at a White House Christmas party.  I told President Bush and Karl Rove, who was then his senior advisor, that I was running for Chair of the King County Republican Party because we needed to do more in King County to help our candidates.  They both promised to provide their support and Karl Rove reiterated that promise when he called after the election to congratulate me on my 72% victory.

The new Chairman takes over immediately after the election, and I inherited no staff, an unsuitable office location, no money and a $9000 debt owed by the county party.  So, it was back to mobilizing support – financial contributions and volunteers to support our operations.  I made numerous phone calls and met people for coffee, breakfasts, and luncheons, individually and in groups, appealing for contributions. After several weeks, I was able to pay off the debts, find a better office location at a better rental rate, line up volunteers to answer the phone and hire an executive director to manage the day-to-day operations.  In the first year, we raised close to $250,000.

I also held Karl Rove to his promise.  In April 2004, he came to Seattle to speak to a sell-out crowd at our Lincoln Day Dinner, an event that contributed $115,000 to the county party’s coffers.

I also had to create the infrastructure that would allow the organization to thrive.  My position as Chairman was as a non-salaried volunteer, as are the district chairmen and the PCO’s.

We needed to raise money to support our office operation and our efforts to register voters, pay for automated phone calls to remind people to vote, contribute to candidates’ campaigns, and pay for voters pamphlets and mailers in support of candidates and issues.   And, I needed to mobilize a larger grassroots army if we were to be effective in the 2004 campaign in a county of more than 1.5 million people.  The PCO’s recruited friends and neighbors to be volunteers to knock on more doors, call up more voters, persuade more voters who would not be able to get to the polls on election day to sign up for – and cast – absentee ballots, and even offer to drive voters to the polling places on the day of the election.  In 2004, for the first time in eight years, our county party organization achieved sufficient funds and a critical mass of grassroots activists, supporting candidates at the local, district, statewide and national level.

Grassroots Politics and Emerging Technologies

I’ve given you a sense of grassroots politics in the United States from my personal experience.  In some ways, my examples already need updating.  The increasing use of the Internet, text messages, and podcasting is transforming grassroots politics in America at staggering speed.

Though the tools of grassroots politics have evolved dramatically – especially since the days of the Boston Tea Party – the passion and purpose of grassroots activists haven’t changed.  Citizens’ political advocacy remains at the heart of grassroots efforts, and communication remains critical to success.

With the Internet available to more than 70 percent of Americans, grassroots activists are harnessing technology to identify and mobilize voters.

• Just look at the last Presidential campaign in the United States:  Howard Dean was the governor of the small state of Vermont and not particularly well known on the national scene.  He decided to seek the Democratic Party's presidential nomination in 2004.  In the early days of the campaign, his candidacy took off thanks to his pioneering use of the Internet for fundraising, organizing, and building community among his supporters.  He bypassed existing party and activist infrastructure and built his own online network of supporters.  One factor that contributed to his presidential bid's early failure was the lack of synergy between his grassroots campaign and the party establishment.  The first primary was in Iowa and Dean had a coffee shop strategy to visit grassroots activists in all 99 Iowa counties.  But he didn't have the ground troops and campaign infrastructure to get voters to the polls.
  
• The Republicans’ pivotal success in Ohio during the same campaign can also be traced to the combination of grassroots and technology.  In true grassroots fashion, Republicans emphasized early on the importance of identifying and registering like-minded voters.  Grassroots supporters then kept their message on the voters’ minds – and at their fingertips – through campaign websites and emails.

Technology has become even more mainstream to political campaigns since the 2004 elections.  In the last election, the relative influence of television advertising declined as voters tuned out the flood of political ads, so campaigns gearing up for the 2006 Congressional elections are turning to new ways to reach specific groups of potential supporters with similar interests and ideas.

• For example, with an estimated 85 percent of American college students using the on-line social network Facebook, students active in campaigns or issues use the site to generate “buzz” within virtual communities of potential supporters.  Student political activists can click on the “political views” category in the profile section and use the site’s search feature to acquire a list of other students at their institution who have entered information matching their keyword search.  The students then send their message to friends on-line – including many “friends” they’ve never met in person.
  
• Similarly, as weblogs gain in readership, they are supplementing traditional news sources.  Recognizing the influence of this medium, grassroots organizers are using weblogs more and more, especially to reach younger voters.

The Internet, text messaging, and podcasting are expanding the geographical base from which volunteers and donors can participate in an “e-coalition” grassroots campaign.  The new technologies make recruiting, mobilizing, and retaining volunteers more efficient and cost-effective.  It is also easier to manage individuals' involvement with the grassroots organization during the ‘off-season’ between campaigns by sending electronic newsletters and tailoring alerts to individual interests.

The information revolution benefits grassroots efforts in one more way.  The Internet and direct messaging technologies can also be used to increase the political fluency and ‘rapid response’ capability of grassroots volunteers through instantaneous and easy delivery of information, including issue updates, news clips, press releases, links to related websites, and communication tips.  Campaign slogans or legislative approaches can be refined in real time as polling results are tracked and analyzed.  Grassroots volunteers can then make their voices heard with emails, letters, and calls to specific legislators.

Yesterday's campaign signs on front lawns will probably survive, but the digital revolution is transforming message delivery in American politics.  Ten years ago, only a handful of legislators had their own interactive web sites.  Today, nearly all politicians do.  Similarly, most grassroots groups have advocacy web sites.

For politicians and grassroots movements alike, the Internet also means that their opponents' messages are likely to reach as many people as their own messages are.  This is a healthy phenomenon, but it does require advocates to remain alert to what is being said in cyberspace about their candidates or their issues.

Distinguishing genuine grassroots initiatives from imposter efforts can be difficult.  A new challenge for the grassroots is "astroturfing," a practice that takes its name from the artificial grass in sports stadiums.  Astroturfing refers to centrally orchestrated public relations efforts that try to give the impression that they arise from the spontaneous efforts of private citizens.  The new technologies also offer myriad possibilities for “astroturfing” such as decoy web sites created with negative or false information.  Viral attack videos transmitted by peer-to-peer podcasts disguise the authors' association with a specific candidate or campaign.  Public relations firms promote the fast-growing industry of “grassroots consulting,” promising to develop and run strategic campaigns from afar with professional staff – quite a stretch from genuine grassroots politics at the local level and, in my experience, not always very effective.

Looking ahead, the 2008 Presidential campaign may feature techno-political applications beyond our reach today.  Perhaps television advertising will be supplanted by video advertisements beamed to our hand phones and our MP3 players.

As Americans are bombarded with text messages, emails, and podcasts, the challenge for grassroots politics in America will be figuring out how to use the Internet to entice multi-tasked potential voters to linger on their message long enough to be persuaded.  After all, it’s a lot easier to click the delete button than it is to pass up a cookie or cup of coffee at a meet-and-greet the candidate in a neighbor’s house.

Conclusion

I hope that I’ve given you a sense of grassroots politics in the United States, based on my personal experience.  Grassroots politics in the United States represents democracy in action. Autonomous groups and independent action have been recognized by Americans from Thomas Jefferson to the present as a foundation of our civil society.

Our friends abroad have long considered grassroots activism a distinctive feature of our democracy.  For example, Alexis de Tocqueville in 1835 said:

“The political activity that pervades the United States

must be seen to be understood.  No sooner do you set

foot upon American ground than you are stunned by a

kind of tumult….here the people of one quarter of a town

are meeting to decide upon the building of a church;

there the election of a representative is going on;

a little farther, the delegates of a district are hastening

to the town in order to consult upon some local improvements;

in another place, the laborers of a village quit their plows

to deliberate upon a project of a road or a public school…

To take a hand in the regulation of society and to discuss it

is (the) biggest concern and, so to speak, the only pleasure

an American knows.”

Perhaps times aren’t changing so fast, after all.

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time and for your attention this evening.  I look forward to your questions.