When I was out tabling for My Guy in 2003, people would ask me if I worked for his campaign.
No, I would say,
I'm part of the grassroots. Then I would grin and add,
...that's campaign-speak for "we ain't paying for it." This always got a laugh.
To me, this is the traditional definition of "grassroots." Grassroots organizations rely on volunteer support in terms of money and/or free labor...the redundant "unpaid volunteers." These volunteers are the grassroots.
Many organizations, including campaigns, like to describe themselves as "grassroots." They like to convey that their candidate or cause is a response to an outpouring of concern or demand from many ordinary individuals, not just another small group of people out for power and money. But an awful lot of them don't get any nearer to their "grassroots" than a check in the mail or...these days, a Contribute link on their website.
Other organizations rely on their grassroots for more than money. This is often true of political campaigns, which use free labor to stuff envelopes, do literature drops, and phonebank. Traditionally, grassroots volunteers show up for a limited time commitment and do what they are told. The tasks are seldom intellectually challenging, to put it mildly.
The grassroots for My Guy was different. It was our campaign. We took ownership of it. No, we didn't "crash the gates" and take over HQ...although many of us were sorely tempted at times. We took ownership of our part in the campaign...part in getting Our Guy elected. We figured out what to do, how to do it, when to do it, and then we did it.
Much later, a troll pointed out that, in traditional party politics, "grassroots" doesn't really mean this. It means local and state party officials, as opposed to national party officials. For Democrats, that means you are not part of the "grassroots" if you aren't at least on your local precinct committee. I've always thought it meant you weren't really part of the party at all, at least not from the perspective of the party's "leaders." But that's probably just my warped indy viewpoint, which also holds that, once you become a paid anything, such as a paid campaign staff or an elected official, you are no longer part of the grassroots. At least, not with respect to that particular effort. You might still be part of the grassroots in other efforts.
These definitions are not set in stone...they are just my personal take on a term that is widely used and often means different things to different people. I know there are other definitions of "grassroots" out there, and many different idears concerning the broader implications of being a member of a grassroots that only contributes money, or only stuffs envelopes, versus a more autonomous and/or meaningful grassroots involvement...how this affects or reflects the "grassroots" organization and how it affects or reflects the grassroots supporter.
I'd like to hear yours...