So I cleared a patch of land out back behind my home. I sprinkled down a bunch of grass seed. The snow got to it, it rained, and before too long I have thousands of beautiful bright green and needle thin blades of grass. They look awesome.
Before too long I am going to have to fight the weeds. Those beautiful little green rootlings will have to combat crabgrass, ryegrass, clover, wood sorrel, dandelions, and just about everything else.
Thankfully the weather has co-operated with the watering, but as soon as the rainy season is over I’ll have to get the garden hose and tend to that patch of real estate. Next year, I’ll have to overseed and repeat the task.
Now some of my friends will look at their lawns and chuckle. ”If it weren’t for crabgrass, I’d have no grass at all!” For most, the fight for saving the lawn is a losing battle. Crabgrass runs wild, the tall ryegrass consumes all sorts of water, dandelions leave huge patches, clover and wood sorrel conspire as well.
Eventually, the competition gets so bad and the neglect so damaging, the grassroots dry up
As a former unit chairman, a campaigner, a candidate and a volunteer I could tell you countless names of folks whom I know to be grassroots activists. They are the folks who come to the dinners, come to the meetings, stuff the envelopes, knock on the doors, and make the phone calls. They’re quiet, dutiful to the end, reliable, and believe in the cause.
Of course, we all know the sort that drives folks like this away. Someone will force a pamphlet, an issue, a litmus test. Another crank in the back of the room will constantly criticize and never contribute. Yet another will seek titles only for personal advancement. Others seek responsibilities and do nothing with them. Some folks who should be doing outreach do pushback instead. Leaders of organizations have to deal with them all — and sometimes, the weeds take over.
Just like any lawn, plenty of good grassroots makes the fight against the weeds easier. But when the lawn is nothing but crabgrass, it’s tough to get started, isn’t it?
The problem of any organization is when the crabgrass starts pushing out the grassroots. Typically people begin to realize the problem when there is work to be done, and the reliable stalwarts haven’t shown up again. Phone calls go out, we beg and try… but the grassroots just don’t want to deal with the blowhards, the lazy, the ambitious, or the incompetent.
Grassroots require cultivation. Individual attention can go a long, long way. A phone call, a thank-you note, a Christmas card, free pizza, some access to the candidate they are helping. That’s all helpful. And when the weeds start infecting your pristine lawn? Weed them out.
The problem with Virginia Republicans is that we’ve become like the neighbor who is happy with the crabgrass, for fear we wouldn’t have any grass at all. That goes for virtually all sides, whether it is conservative, moderate, or libertarian. We simply aren’t taking care of our own, and it’s killing Republicans statewide.
Who are the grassroots? They’re not coming to your unit committee meetings. They’re not coming to your rallies. They aren’t coming to your chicken dinners or barbeques. They’re at home — blogging, e-mailing friends, participating in “Tea Parties”, griping at work, praying in church, but otherwise have been burned by the crabgrass in the party.
My solution? Same as in the lawn. Weed out the crabgrass, overseed, cultivate heavily, and keep weeding out until we get things back to where they should be.
Will it take years? Yes.
Will it take money? You bet.
Are we ready to drown out the crabgrass and take back the party? Dunno…
For a long, long time we’ve had leaders and activists who don’t know anything but crabgrass. When I first got started back in 1993, the party was nothing but grassroots. When was the last time we had a ticket that brought the fire and energy the Allen/Farris/Gilmore ticket brought?
I say it’s 2009. I say it’s today. I say that what’s left of the grassroots who stuck around in the unit committees, who elected their District Chairs, whose unit representatives elected their State Central members, those people deserve their shot.
Here’s a newsflash: State Central Committee is
the grassroots. If any other group truly were that group, they’d have representation at RPV State Central.
I have long argued that RPV is the aggregated voice of the grassroots. Those grassroots deserve leadership willing to foster and cultivate their efforts. No more snapping fingers and expecting an army just because the other guy is worse. Our grassroots want to believe again.
The bottom line? Too many folks have replaced their conservativism with condescension… and we’ll continue to learn the hard way with still more losses until Republicans earn
rather than expect votes.
Good piece. Agree that now is the time.
Unfortunately, two folks who lean way in opposite ways will squint in the sunlight and argue over what is crabgrass and grassroots. There will always be conflict.
Didn’t know that we both started in politics at the same time. Summer of ’92 for me.
I wish you could have seen the fellow who stood up at the Hampton breakfast when Ed Gillespie did a HB 3202 roadshow. He said to quit trying to scare us with calling the Democrats “Liberal”. You have to earn the votes. And this was from a Republican activist.
Good post, Shaun!
JAB, I agree that HB3202 was a disaster, and Gillespie and McDonnell need to atone for that mistake. But that is not reason enough to keep Jeff Frederick as RPV Chairman. By any appreciable measurement of public opinion, Bob McDonnell ranks far and above Jeff Frederick. Frederick should learn something about selfessness and sacrifice from Bill Bolling and try to bow our with some remaining sense of respectability.
Good post, Shaun.
Good piece, but I think something needs to be added. You speak of the cultivation of the grassroots as a strictly top down problem. For the grassroots to have relevance, we must have a bottom up solution. If a political organization is going to be effective, the grassroots must understand its role and pursue it on ITS OWN INITIATIVE!
Leadership is important, but it must be leadership that the grassroots chooses and cultivates. Because the grassroots has gotten LAZY, we now have leadership that pacifies the grassroots instead of being cultivated by the grassroots.
When most American government was local government — when Americans thought first of their local communities — we had a stronger grassroots. We had a grassroots strong enough to push aside crabgrass. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons, the grassroots has weakened. People think less and less of their local communities and of their neighbors. Too many don’t know what their civil responsibilities might be or how their government works.
For too many, government has become a distant affair that other people do. Too many equate politics with disgusting dishonesty and don’t want to be involved. Others naively think of getting involved as going to a demonstration and waving about a sign. Most public involvement is donating a few dollars to a political campaign. Too often the donors know little or nothing about the candidate they support. In time, if the public does not get up off its duff and learn how to participate in the governance of their nation, crabgrass tyranny will be all that is left of our nation.
Good post Shaun,
It is important to have good leadership to set goals and lay out a clear direction to work towards. That means identifying Candidates at every level and making sure that they have the help they need to get elected. At the Town Council, Board of Supervisor, Planning Commission level, every level.
One of our most basic rights, property rights, has been under severe attack for a very long time now. We can reverse this with good leadership. That is just one of many issues that requires the party to be involved on every level. That leadership MUST be capable of attracting, engaging and cultivating the Grassroots that are whithering and giving up; that have given up; that have not yet woken up as well.
Melody Scalley
http://www.melodyscalley.wordpress.com