Net Roots vs. Grass Roots and Community Organizers vs. Community

At first blush many seem to see the activists opposing Obamacare and those pushing for it as very similar. Both use websites, e-mails, and cell phones to stay connected and to mobilize their forces. But, there is a fundamental difference between them that a little research quickly reveals. One side actually had “net roots” while the other actually had genuine “grass roots.” Though President Obama likes to claim that his was a grassroots movement, it really had “net roots.” A few years ago leftists realized that they needed to mobilize and “organize” people on a grand scale to push their agenda. They turned to their most tech savvy folks to carry the water for the leftist leaders. The leftist leaders, especially those who were tech savvy however, set the agenda. This means the movement was not truly “grassroots” in nature. It was slick and well organized by people who were old hands at what is called on the left “community organizing.”  

For the left “community organizing” basically means that activists go out into the community to “educate” people about why they should be angry and to convince them that they are owed something by those who are either in government positions and can redistribute tax money in some way to them or simply have more than they do. They work hard to stir them up and sometimes have to pay some of them to show up and protest. That, in fact, is what is going on now among many of the crowds who rally in support of Obamacare. You can see they have a big well organized machine behind them and sometimes big organizations that hope to get money in some way from the taxpayer for their members by things like their being bussed to the location, wearing matching shirts (ACORN and SEIU for example) and their professionally made signs. Often they are given their marching orders by leftist leaders, increasingly by leftist leaders in the government.

On the other side, the true grassroots, you have no central command. Instead what you have are conservative websites that had been trying to have an impact and pretty much failing up until about a year ago. They had no activists to go out a “organize” people and frankly would have been pretty inept at it if they had tried. What happened was that individuals in the community began to see things being done by the government that upset them. First the bailouts came, under both Bush and Obama, and then the rush to push cap and trade through the House. The upset individuals had begun communicating with their friends, sometimes using the new media, and searching for sources of information and advice. They stumbled upon conservative websites that were willing to help or, in some cases, created their own websites. They are so individualistic that no one can presume to give them marching orders. Instead, what they are doing is seeking information. Their questions are things like: For what is the stimulus money really being used? What is in the cap-and-trade bill? How will it affect my family? Why is my tax money being used to help someone else get a nicer car? Why is Congressional leaders and the President in so much of a hurry to pass these bills that they don’t want anyone to have time to read them? What is really going to be in the plans for health care reform and how will it affect me and my family? Why is the government committing us to paying of such a huge debt? Are they going to raise my taxes either openly or in a hidden way? 

People seeking answers for these concerns were frustrated by two things. The White House and the Congressional leadership were in too much of a hurry to let anyone read what was going to be in the legislation and when they did get access to some information about what was in the bills, it frightened them. It looked like government officials wanted to run every aspect of their daily lives and make all their decisions for them. This got a lot of them wondering about whether the government was behaving as it should. They then found sources for acquiring copies of the Constitution of the United States and as they studied it they found that government had long been violating what was supposed to be the supreme law of the land. The politicians were not obeying the document that they had sworn an oath to protect and defend. This made them angrier.

This is the process in place now. If they finally become an angry mob, it will be because of the abuse and disrespect they have been shown by some the people they helped elect; it will be because of distortions, obvious untruths, and slick maneuvers of the White House and of the Congressional leadership. For over 90 years the Progressives/Statists have been getting closer and closer to absolute control of the American people. They saw the election of President Obama and the Democratic majority in Congress as giving them their best chance ever of total government control and to get there they are trying to run roughshod over true Constitutional governance and the will of the people. The President is now appointing Czar after Czar (certainly a position that has no support from the Constitution) and these unaccountable creatures of the White House are trying to run roughshod over the people’s liberties. It is almost as if the leftists in Congress and the White House are trying to provoke an actual Civil War. 

Do they really think the descendents of the heroes of 1776, the sons and daughters of risk taking immigrants, the off spring of those who gave their life’s blood to end slavery will passively submit to a new tyranny? Ordinary Americans have left their dead on hundreds of battlefields around the world in the defense of freedom. What makes those here in America, who would impose government tyranny, so bold as to believe they can get away with it? As more and more people begin to clearly see their agenda, the true “grass roots” opposing them Independents, Republicans, and yes Democrats will rise up and say no, no to your chains, no to you telling me what we can eat, what we can wear, what we can drive, how much health insurance we can have, or any other dictatorial plan you might have for us. If you keep pushing us, you will lose and people who think like you will never be allowed near the levers of power again.

 A Few Words from George Washington on the Constitution and a Challenge

“The power under the Constitution will always be in the people. It is entrusted for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period, to representatives of their own choosing; and whenever it is executed contrary to their interest, or not agreeable to their wishes, their servants can, and undoubtedly will, be recalled.” George Washington (1787) The Writings of George Washington by John C. Fitzpatrick, GPO, 1931-44. Vol. 32:2

Notice what the hero of the American Revolution and President of the Constitutional Convention had to say about that document in the quote above. First, he reminds us that the power in our government was meant to always reside in the people and that it is only entrusted “for certain defined purposes, and for a certain limited period” to representatives of our own choosing.  We must study the Constitution for ourselves. It was meant for the people to read. We must know what the limits of the U.S. government are supposed to be so that we can demand that government not exceed those limits. 

Those “certain defined purposes” are spelled out in the Constitution itself. This is why as patriots we must diligently study its text. It was meant for us to understand and when he says “defined purposes” that means that if our government officials go beyond what is specifically defined in the Constitution as their powers, they are acting unconstitutionally. For over a hundred years now, progressives in congress and the white house have been doing just that, though usually trying to cloak their efforts in legalisms. Today, they often don’t even bother with those. We must hold them to account for their violations of the constitutional limits which our founders placed on the central government. Too long, we have allowed them to subvert the system and accrue power to the central government which by rights is and should be in the hands of the states and the people.

According to Washington, we have no excuse. We must stop voting back into office people who are working against what is in the best interest of the liberty of the American people. It is up to us to call government to account and some of us have started doing that. More of us need to. Remember the real power is in our hands not theirs. Don’t let them condescend to you, talk down to you, or try to intimidate you. Look them square in the eye and tell them that you intend to vote them out if they do not listen and that you will do your best to convince your neighbors and friends to join you in doing so.

Also note that George Washington felt himself as President to be constrained by the text of the Constitution. In 1790, he wrote that “The Constitution of the United States, and the laws made under it, must mark the line of my official conduct.” (Ibid. 31:9) He tried to live up to that. For example, he never appointed a shadow-cabinet of Czars who, thereby, avoided the need for the advice and consent of the Senate to hold office.

Washington also feared that people might try to twist the meaning of the Constitution to gain power. In 1796, he wrote “Towards the preservation of our government…it is requisite…that you resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles, however specious the pretexts. One method of assault may be to effect, in the forms of the Constitution, alterations which will impair the energy of the system, and thus undermine what cannot be directly overthrown.” (Ibid. 35:225) For many years this is what many in our government, especially those on the left, have been doing. Washington was warning us, future generations, that we must “resist with care the spirit of innovation upon its principles.” We must roll back what the left has been trying to do in this country for over 100 years. Progressives want a managed society, not a free one. They do not trust ordinary Americans to run their own affairs. They crave the power to tell us how to live and what we can and cannot do. It is up to us to stop them. We must return to the basic principles of the Constitution and remove their disastrous innovations that have been slowly choking the life out of our freedom. We must root their weeds from the garden of American law. They have undermined the system for years and appear to be about to try and overthrow it openly. Now is the time to heed the first President to serve this nation under our Constitution. Now is the day of battle.