Grassroots Campaigning Is Back From the Dead Because of Alabama

[This is the second part of a posting about the death and revival of grassroots campaigning and Alabama's role. The first part is Winning Political Campaigns With Virtually No Money. An Alabama Lesson!]


Because I persisted in using grassroots campaigning all the way into the '80s, Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic operators hated me. My success in winning campaigns without big money gave the lie to their claim that big money was needed. I was threatening all that money they amassed, all those perqs they insisted campaigns needed! They were in the business of literally selling candidates and personally benefiting from the market.

But in grassroots campaigns, power could no longer be bought just by raising money. To save their marketplace they tried to shut down my little headquarters or get our signs removed by the police. I'd even get anonymous threatening phone calls at 1 a.m.

That sounds frightening but actually it was fun! Fighting bad guys is my idea of a good time. And these were the bad guys.

Under the mismanagement of Pelosi and her like, the Democrats have lost the presidency, both houses of Congress and most of the state legislatures and governorships. We are also teetering on getting a solidly conservative Supreme Court for the lifetime of our children. Plus the GOP has been able to control redistricting and thus gerrymander future contested elections virtually out of existence. Further — the worst sin of all —  in 2016 Pelosi and her chums failed to get candidates to run in a number of Congressional districts that were winnable. This not only gave a bunch of Republicans a free ride but freed up GOP money to be spent in other races. With a "leader" like Nancy, who needs an enemy?

But that's over. On election night in Alabama, the victorious Doug Jones credited his victory to his  grassroots campaign.

And Tom Perez, the new head of the Democratic National Committee, said he had been so impressed with the grassroots campaigning in Alabama that all of the DNC funds for the race had gone into that grassroots effort. Even more heartening, Perez pledged that he would support grassroots campaigning all over the country and that he would be sure that there was a Democratic contender in every single House race nationwide.

Grassroots campaigning is now alive and well. Not only will Democrats start winning again, but something even better will happen. People will have a chance again to experience community.

There is so little of community life in our present society that people love grassroots campaigning.  The headquarters becomes a second home, a place to hang out.  They bring their kids. They bring sandwiches and coffee makers. They have parties and play baseball together when not working the precincts. Some go on into politics and run for office. Some marry other volunteers. All become better, more knowledgeable citizens.

The skills of grassroots have value beyond political campaigns.  I use grassroots skills to rally people to fight for all manner of things. e.g.,  exposing some of Nixon's early dirty tricks, getting housing for farmworkers, instigating a federal law prohibiting mass detention without due process, working to end the Vietnam War, saving historic buildings, stopping the ruination of farmland by development and the pollution of world-famous trout streams, protecting Native American spiritual places. I even got some conventional benefit, being one of the first four women to hold an executive position in California state government.  In that job I got to buy about a billion dollars worth of beaches, redwoods, historic sites, Lake Tahoe. Remember the Godfather's house at Tahoe in "Godfather II"? With state funds I bought that for the people of the state of California and all who come to visit.

And when I finished all this work, I walked away, unlike Nancy Pelosi who never turns it over to younger people.

I am delighted the torch is passing to yet another new generation. (If Nancy Pelosi would just let go of it!)

Please take up the torch. Please take up grassroots campaigning. I may write a little how-to booklet and make it available through this blog or my Facebook page. But please don't let the flame go out. Don't let money run politics. Let the people do it.

I promise you you'll have the time of your life. And will also make this a better America and a better world.

Hurrah for Alabama and the good people there who made so much happen.

Now let's go ring some doorbells!