Commentary
The American Republic was established through the blood of revolutionaries. The
preamble of the U.S. Constitution provides the beacon for successive generations of Americans: “We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
The immortalized words “We the people” are constant reminders that the destiny of the Republic resides with American citizens themselves, who exercise political power through the framework of the Constitution. American history is filled with a series of “revolutions from below” (“grassroots revolutions,” if you will) that were brought about by the burning issues and circumstances of the times. Some achieved their goals; others, not so much, but all greatly influenced the politics of their eras. Examples include:
The
Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. Farmers and distillers in western Pennsylvania refused to pay a federally imposed excise tax on spirits and committed violence against the tax collectors. The rebellion was put down by federal militia, but the tax was eventually repealed in 1802 because it was too difficult to collect. And thus began the resentment of citizens for the “revenooers,” which was later directed at the IRS.
The
Abolitionists. The American Anti-Slavery Society was established in Boston, Ma., in 1833. Its purpose was to ban human trafficking and abolish forced labor (slavery) in the United States. Together with the issue of
states’ rights versus federalism, the abolition of slavery was decided through force of arms—the U.S. Civil War. In 1865, the 13th Amendment was ratified by the states, which formally outlawed slavery in the United States.
The
Progressives. The rampant bribery and political corruption associated with the spoils system in many American cities led to a grassroots movement of “Progressives” beginning in the latter part of the 19th century through the 1920s. The
spoils system “employed and promoted civil servants (government officials) who were friends and supporters of the political group in power.” The goal of this movement was to force the government to take a more active role in dealing with the corruption, solving the problems of society, and more actively protecting the welfare of Americans. The Progressives pursued and were successful in forcing implementation of laws dealing with a number of issues: women’s suffrage, banking reforms, changes in labor laws, conservation of the environment, and prohibition of alcohol sales and manufacture. The latter didn’t survive the so-called “Prohibition Era” because the Progressives/Prohibitionists were overwhelmed by a grassroots consensus that forced the repeal of the 18th Amendment in 1933.
The
Isolationists. After the Great War (World War I), Americans reverted to the isolationism first pronounced by President George Washington in his
farewell address (“beware of foreign entanglements”). The focus was on dealing with the effects of the Great Depression and “America’s problems,” not with the problems resulting from the 1919 Armistice agreement in Europe. The isolationists were successful in passing the Johnson Act (1934) and the Neutrality Acts (1935–36) to prevent the United States from providing economic or military aid to any country involved in the European disputes that eventually escalated into World War II in Europe. And of course, U.S. isolationism ended when Pearl Harbor was bombed on Dec. 7, 1941.
The
Anti-War Activists. Large-scale protests of the Vietnam War were instigated by university radicals and various leftwing groups such as Students for a Democratic Society—and, later, civil rights activists—from 1964–1973. The North Vietnamese and their American collaborators effectively conducted an information warfare campaign in the United States that ultimately convinced Americans that the war was a lost cause. The Paris Accords were negotiated in 1973, which ended the Vietnam War (and doomed South Vietnam to communism from 1975 to today).
Other modern grassroots movements that led to significant social and political change in America include:
Finally, there was the
Tea Party. The Tea Party grassroots movement arose in 2009 in protest of Barack Obama’s tax increases, overregulation of the private economy, and lax enforcement of U.S. immigration laws. Essentially, Tea Party activists were against the increasing growth and span of control of the federal government at the expense of states and individuals—a sort of circling back to the states’ rights arguments of Southern states before the Civil War.
The establishments of both the Republican and Democratic parties ultimately joined hands to squelch the Tea Party, but those activists became the core of President Donald Trump’s “America First Movement.” The issues of importance to America First Movement activists include: ending globalism, reducing the federal government to its constitutionally mandated boundaries, ending endless foreign wars, elimination of the federal debt over the long term, ending efforts by the left to criminalize political speech guaranteed by the First Amendment, promoting strong election integrity laws in all states, de-weaponizing federal agencies that target conservatives, ending systematic corruption at the federal and state levels, breaking up the media–Big Tech oligarchy, and restoring the legacy media to its constitutional mission.
Grassroots activist organizations have sprung up across America since 2016. Many are focused on election integrity, especially in Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia. Other groups are filled with people who are opposed to the continued federal deficit spending, the open borders policies of the Biden administration, and the disconnect between the policies of the elected U.S. Congress and those of individual citizens. Future historians will look back on the first two decades of the 21st century as a period of intense political churning in the United States that’s being fomented by numerous grassroots activist organizations (and many others).
The Precinct Strategy Movement
One of those movements that’s beginning to reap dividends is the precinct strategy movement, which is aimed at rebuilding the Republican political party organizations in states from the ground up, that is, from the precinct level to counties/parishes and districts all the way to the state capitals. Precincts are the political level closest to the people. Precinct committeemen and women represent their neighborhoods and communities.The goals of the
precinct strategy are to: (1) influence the policies and direction of the Republican Party, (2) decide who represents the party when running for office, and (3) elect representatives to the party who will “truly represent the people.” In short, to replace “establishment Republicans” with grassroots conservatives who reflect the concerns of the Republican base.
And that’s exactly what’s happening in South Dakota. Over the last several weeks, the first, second, and ninth largest counties in the state have held their Republican Party central committee elections, with the results shocking the establishment Republicans in Pierre (the state capital). The first domino to fall to grassroots conservatives was Yankton County (the ninth largest, in southeast South Dakota) where the entire slate of moderate incumbents was defeated by a conservative slate led by Steve Rokahr
on Jan. 16.
Similarly,
on Jan. 21, Pennington County (the second largest county in the Black Hills, centered on Rapid City, the second largest city in the state) conservatives led by new chair Amy Wagner swept all executive board billets on central committee election results while defeating the moderate slate put forth by the outgoing central committee chairman.
Finally,
on Jan. 28, Republican central committee elections were held in Minnehaha County—the largest county and home to Sioux Falls, the largest city in the state. Again, grassroots conservatives were triumphant, as the slate led by new chairman R. Shawn Tornow defeated the more moderate slate of candidates. This election in particular was a political earthquake within the South Dakota Republican Party.
The results in these three counties were directly linked to the successful precinct strategy being implemented with vigor across the state. It was the votes of new grassroots precinct people elected in the primary election in June 2022 that put the conservative slates of candidates over the top. Other counties such as Ziebach, Todd, McPherson, and Charles Mix have also elected grassroots conservatives to their central committee organizations.
These election results bode well for the future of the South Dakota Republican Party, as the issues motivating grassroots conservatives who form the large core of the party will receive more attention from the state legislature, as well as Gov. Kristi Noem, as pressures are applied from the various county central committees on draft legislation under consideration.
South Dakota is a testament to the potential of the precinct strategy (the grassroots revolution) to restore balance to the state-level Republican Party organizations in America.
Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.
