Grassroots Efforts Quotes

The Tea Party movement started in late 2008 as a rejection of President George W. Bush's bailout of the auto industry and Obama's excessive stimulus spending. It evolved into a movement opposed to ObamaCare, and grassroots efforts were employed to find qualified political candidates who could beat incumbents.

I married a woman from New Orleans, so I had family here. Post-Katrina, I had a number of friends call me up and say they wanted to do something to help the community - not just Habitat for Humanity or Red Cross, we've done that, but what can we do for the community.

My theory of change is that there are already millions of people working day in and day out on the ground to deliver on promises on global change. We need to strengthen those institutions and help those people in the field.

Even if it's a national issue, the federal government cannot provide all the answers.

The first thing you've got to do in any kind of election campaign is be flexible.

The thing I learned is that the work is getting done by people who dig in and work on a particular project: the people who spend 20 years sustaining a theater for black teenagers in Chicago; the people who reintroduce sticklebacks into Strawberry Creek in Berkeley and then wait patiently for the first egrets to show up.

Solutions aren't going to come out of Washington, but leadership can.

I think I'm one of the most patriotic people that I've ever encountered in America. I consider myself a bedrock patriot. I participate very actively in local politics, because my voice might be worthwhile. I participate in a meaningful way - not by donations; I work at it.

You're not going to have a 1.000 batting average, but the way you get votes is, you just push and you push. I'm not afraid to do that.

We're doing everything we can to solidify my base of support in the 4th Congressional district.

Older, younger, anyone can help. We've learned that our legislators listen, and people with passionate and thoughtful concerns make a difference every day. We've had constituents initiate legislation, lobby for it, organize meetings and events, and, of course, call, mail, e-mail and visit legislators to express their views. It's really great to see how much difference that individuals can make.

There are so many men and women who hold no distinctive positions but whose contribution towards the development of society has been enormous.

Recently, I was giving a speech and I said that it's time for many of us to "go home." Not necessarily to move back home but rather to go back to our communities and support those outreach programs and those people who could use our assistance.

I'd rather work with a grassroots organization than in politics. I'm not sure I'd be the best politician because I don't think I'm good about tactfully tiptoeing around questions in the right way.

An individual can march for peace or vote for peace and can have, perhaps, some small influence on global concerns. But the same individual is a giant in the eyes of a child at home. If peace is to be built, it must start with the individual. It is built brick by brick.

It's very difficult to solve a lot of problems from the top down.

To get involved with a cause, you really have to become aware of it. You have to go on the ground and see with your own eyes, the people who have been affected by it, their process in how they're combating it, and what the organization represents.

I'm very humbled by the fact that grassroots efforts are rising up all over the country, but particularly in my home state of Ohio. I barely have words. To know that so many people across the state, from the rural areas to the urban areas, see something in my leadership and really believe I am someone for the people means a lot to me. That's how I want people to see me and my public service.

Most organizations should be pro-active, but philanthropists concerned with poverty should deliberately be reactive, learning from the efforts of ordinary folks who tired of looking the other way as their communities fell apart.

There's no substitute for rolling up your sleeves and working with the people who can make a difference. They get the benefit of your participation and you gain a direct understanding of the real problems and potential solutions, which makes you a more informed giver.

Between 2012 and 2016, Donald Trump earned 14,000 more votes than Mitt Romney did in Detroit. It was wonderful to have a candidate in our party come to Detroit and campaign and actually show up and invest time there even though he probably didn't think he was going to win Detroit.

We've learned that project by project, you can't change millions and millions of lives.

We all know as we travel around this country or around the world that there are huge problems, and also people doing amazing things on the ground - but those people rarely get reported. Our media are so into conflict that they sometimes say to me, "Bring an 'anti' with you."

Once you start turning over rocks and reaching out to help people, there's a whole avalanche coming right behind it. And it seems never-ending. But when you see the fruits of your labor, you feel like it's possible.

I am so profoundly aware of my lack of skill to make any material difference. I am not a doctor. I can't influence foreign policy. I can't build schools. I can't chemically engineer the protein paste that helps people with acute malnutrition. But I can talk about it, and so can you.