By definition, the grassroots is the bottom of the political pyramid, opposite the “establishment,” which controls the top. While the establishment concentrates power in relatively few people in the highest echelons of power — typically party leaders, elected officials, appointed aides or bureaucrats, and others who wield considerable authority over others (and whose business is limiting others’ choices) — the grassroots includes virtually everyone else, those common people who do not necessarily hold any political office and who may even be getting their first taste of politics in a particular cause.
Let Us Be Involved in this Initiative
People at the grassroots are anxious to do something. They are especially anxious to do something MEANINGFUL — at least to them. They are politically-minded people who — when they find a cause worthy of their time, energy, and means — are willing to let go of inhibitions, fears, and preconceptions and jump into the cause with unusual passion.
Motivated grassroots activists can be counted on to carry the burden for any particular political cause. They will make phone calls, label envelopes, knock on doors, organize their friends and relatives, e-mail everybody on their lists, march in the streets, put up yard signs, attend rallies, volunteer for leadership, write letters to editors, lobby VIP’s, distribute petitions, donate money, and in countless other ways make great personal sacrifice for what they believe in.