Shouldn't "grassroots" mean "local in origin"?

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Grassroots' -- rooted in Washington, D.C

By JOEL CONNELLY

SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

A believer in grassroots politics since high school, I perked up at a flier in my mailbox from "Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies" and its homespun message directed to the Evergreen State:

[snipped]

 Then I checked the return address: This "Grassroots" group is headquartered at 1401 New York Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C., 2005.

It just happens to be the address of American Crossroads, a political group inspired by Washington, D.C., insiders Karl Rove and former Republican National Chairman Ed Gillespie. Its day-to-day operations are run by Steven Law, former general counsel to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
[snipped]

Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies is, under the U.S. Code, a "social welfare" organizations. Hence, it does not need to disclose donors. I can never find out who paid for the flier in my Whidbey mailbox.
[snipped]


 My mailbox is filled with fliers this time of year. Usually, unless the Building Industry Assn. of Washington is fielding local front groups, it's easy to tell who's trying to influence my vote -- and why. The League of Conservation Voters has fought to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The National Education Assn. wants more money spent on public schools.

Thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court's "Citizens United" ruling, however, corporate America is free to spend unlimited amounts of money in a bid to buy the U.S. Congress. They have borrowed a tactic pioneered by Stalin and the Communist Party International (COMINTERN) in the 1930's: Create and control secretive front groups.
[snipped]

In Citizens United, a five-man majority of Supremes piously argued that "independent expenditures, including those made by corporations, do not give rise to corruption or the appearance of corruption."
[snipped]

The opinion is absurd. We cannot find out who is trying to influence us. Is the U.S. Chamber of Commerce using money from foreign sources (i.e. China) to defeat Senate and House members who oppose outsourcing of jobs? Are Chinese dollars at work trying to thwart solar and wind energy development in America?

The Chamber issues vociferous denials, but won't show anybody the books. What if we want to follow Ronald Reagan's old maxim (on dealing with the Soviets): "Trust, but verify." No way to do that.
[snipped]

 Karl Rove always said his political hero was Mark Hanna, the Ohio political boss who put President William McKinley into the White House. (Hanna referred to Teddy Roosevelt as "that damned cowboy.)


He is a latter day Hanna. The flier on my doorstep is one tiny piece in a campaign whose real aim is to bring back the Gilded Age.