Grassroots Versus No Roots
Grassroots is a term that really needs no explanation. Let a blade of good old Bermuda grass get hold and it will spread across a lawn like an invading army. Grass starts at the gound and does its own thing. Which is why it is applied to viral political movements. Such movements get started at the local level by average citizens who are moved to get involved. That is what makes it special. There is no power structure whipping people into a frenzy with neural linguistic programming and other slick tricks, grassroots is people getting involved on their own initiative, finding each other, linking up, and spreading like wildfire. Or, Bermuda grass.
There've been a lot of claims that the conservative resistance to President Obama's health care plan, and more recently his speech to kids, are orchestrated events. That people are being given 'marching orders' and blindly following them. A number of public officials from Nancy Pelosi to Barney Frank and even the President himself (who should be above such things) have cried loudly that Republican leaders are out trying to scare people, sending them to disrupt townhall meetings, and generally organizing an illigitimate resistance. I have a few problems with these arguments.
First, there is no Republican leadership and the people who are trying to be the leaders are grossly incompetent. That is evidenced by that Party's nomination of John McCain for President last year. And for at least two years the Democrats have been reveling in, commenting on, and exploiting the lack of any effective Republican leadership. So what group are they talking about who has organized this fierce resistance and where are the converts who didn't show up for the election last fall?
So where has this strong opposition come from? This strong opposition is, well, me. And thousands, even millions, like me. I'm not a Republican though if they had any decent leaders and a plan and would accept poor people into their ranks, I might be. (Ronald Reagan, where are you?) But I'm sitting here writing this blog this morning when I should be trying to make some money so I can pay my taxes. And just to the left of this text you'll find a link to a website selling "Just Say NObama" paraphenelia. I made that stuff. I sat here on my computer and used Adobe Photoshop to put together pithy sayings then uploaded them to a website that turns them into bumperstickers. Nobody told me to do that. I just got sick of being lied to, and yes, I'm smart enough to tell when a politician is lying to me. You don't even have to be a rocket scientist to know that. Just watch their lips. If their lips are moving, they are lying. Why did I spend a weekend making PNG files and getting them formatted right, setting up a webstore, and generally agonizing over the direction of the country? Because a charalatan is trying to sell us a bill of goods and millions of people see the Emperor's New Clothes. Or rather, don't see them. If that isn't grassroots then the word has no meaning.
Third, who the hell are some democrat leaders to tell me that a movement is illegitimate? They are the kings of the special interest. Who the hell do these bastards think they are, telling me I can't go to a townhall meeting and scream my head off like they've been doing since the sixties? What a bunch of effite, pompous, commie snobs. It doesn't matter if the movement is organized, grassroots, or left field, this is a democracy and if somebody is protesting then they are as legitimate as some freak at a San Francisco convention to save the gay whales.
There is a truth of human nature at work here, and it is this: a thief trusts no one. Thieves, being dishonest, assume everyone around them is dishonest also and are constantly expecting to be stolen from. People in general think this way. And honest people, on the other hand, think others are honest. The democrats, because everything they do is orchestrated, can't even conceive of a grassroots movement getting started by itself because they are always out trying to start grassroots movements. And grassroots movements don't come from organization or they're not grassroots. So when they see a large groundswell of protest, they assume it must be orchestrated because their groundswells always are orchestrated. Like the fanatical protesters we see from communist countries - except the cameras don't show the machine guns just off stage. Now I'm not suggesting that democrats point machine guns at their supporters to get them in the mood, but they do bus them around, saturate them with propaganda, and generally organize opposition extremely well. Sort of like the way lemmings were used in the Disney Movie, White Wilderness.
And there's another truth of human nature at work here as well. The democrats know these tactics work and don't want us using their play book.
Grassroots? The opposition to ObamaCare is the definition of grassroots. Why? Because it is a bad idea written into an even worse bill. And yes, there are people out there who know good from bad, prefer good to bad, and will fight against turning good into bad. Who are these people? Well they're not lemmings, I'll tell you that. And they could use a leader. But where do you find great leaders in a land where there are so few humble beginnings?
Futbol Guru, http://mises.org/community/blogs/not-a-lemming .