Telling Our Grassroots Story

This week we’d like to encourage you to read our own Susan W.'s thoughtful essay in The Grassroots Connector. It perfectly captures something we’ve been talking about for a long time.

If you followed the news, you might think the story of the Trump era is told almost entirely through politicians, cable news panels, and the latest Substack debates. But those of us in the grassroots know that's only part of the story.

For nearly ten years, ordinary people have been building something extraordinary. We've written millions of postcards, knocked on doors, made phone calls, texted voters, raised money for candidates up and down the ballot, attended protests, educated our communities, and helped elect Democrats in races that rarely make the evening news. We've celebrated victories, learned from losses, and then gotten back to work.

Yet much of that story goes untold.

As Ellen B. wrote in response to Susan's essay, there is a real disconnect between the incredible energy and persistence of grassroots activists and the narrative presented by much of the mainstream media—and even by many of the political commentators we admire. There are wonderful exceptions, including Robert Hubbell and Jess Craven, who consistently shine a light on grassroots organizing. But too often the work of thousands of volunteers is overlooked.

That doesn't mean our work isn't making a difference. It is.

It does mean that we need to become better storytellers and better recruiters.

Every one of us can help grow this movement. If you have friends who spend dinner talking about the latest outrageous headline, invite them over for iced tea and a postcard-writing afternoon. Show them that there is something meaningful they can do. Send them our Postcarding FAQ. Invite them to one of our beginner postcarding bootcamps (details below). Postcarding has become the gateway to activism for thousands of people in our community, and with thousands of addresses currently available for outstanding down-ballot candidates on Postcards For Democracy, there has never been a better time to bring someone new into the fold.

And we're not the only ones who think postcarding matters. Robert Reich recently wrote about the power of postcarding and the difference this simple, personal act of voter outreach can make. It's a great piece to share with someone who may not yet see themselves as an activist, but might be willing to write a few postcards.

Now, with three months until the midterms, it's a good time to think about adding to your activism with phonebanking and canvassing. If you are new to phonebanking or need a refresher course, there are "Phonebanking 101" trainings this month to get ready for the fall. Some of us will stick to postcarding, but even the most die hard postcarders will want to turn to phonebanking after the last mailing deadline in October. We've listed some of the phonebanking trainings below, along with voter protection workshops from Indivisible.

We also think you should consider being interviewed or being an interviewer with the Persisterhood Oral History Project, whose founders joined us on Zoom this past week. They're preserving the stories of the people who have been organizing, resisting, and building since 2016. Those stories deserve to be remembered not just because they document the past, but because they remind us that history is written by people who show up.

The grassroots story isn't over. In many ways, we're just getting started. Let's keep telling it and let's each bring one more person with us.