NewGrassRoots: “Small D” Digital Democracy Now Planted in Vermont

Publisher’s Note: Benjamin Brown, Vermont’trepeneur and founder of Rutland-based NewGrassRoots, has a compelling vision for harnessing digital technology. Namely, to make our local and state/republican political process more transparent, authentic, and engaging. This fall, we caught up with Ben for an in-depth interview about New Grass Roots and his hope and vision for a more democratic future. 

Q. NewGrassRoots – what’s your vision in a nutshell, Ben?
A. Our vision is of a transparent, just and equally-accessible civic engagement process which every citizen and legislator trusts, cherishes and participates in daily. Democracy is more of a process than an outcome, so we’re building technologies and work-flows designed to place citizens at the center of policy debates and decisions. A comprehensive study from 2014 by Martin Giles and Benjamin Page, entitled “Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups and Average Citizens,” has proven beyond reasonable doubt that our government technically functions as an oligarchy, not a democracy. I highly encourage folks to read the study for themselves, but it can be summed up nicely in one quote:

“The central point that emerges from our research is that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while mass-based interest groups and average citizens have little or no independent influence.”

NewGrassRoots’ vision was founded on the belief that the current lack of representation for “mass-based interest groups and average citizens” is the root cause of most of today’s geopolitical volatility. Innocent people die because our “democracy” is not controlled by the citizens.

We need a new way of doing things, and fast.

The insanely wealthy ruling class continues to use citizens as fodder for escalating global wars, currency bubbles, institutional racism, and profiteering from climate-change-induced natural disasters. The health of our democracy directly correlates with the level of integrity in our political processes, and right now we’ve got the cancer called oligarchy. We’re designing a system that decentralizes political power back to local communities. One of our primary metrics of success is the level of trust constituents have that they’re actually being heard and represented by legislators. Electoral politics is something within the scope of our vision which we do intend to impact, but currently we’re focused only on the citizen engagement process. We have legislators right now who campaigned on certain policies but don’t always vote for those policies, and often hide behind the obscurity of what the majority of their constituents actually think. So we can’t even hold existing legislators’ feet to the fire.

Some of Vermont’s most innovative legislators already love receiving messages from us, so we’ll continue to build those relationships and raise the bar for all elected officials already in office. Eventually though, the natural progression of NewGrassRoots seems it may lead to what I call a “minor league” for elected officials, made up of engaged citizens who love transparency, technology and representative democracy more than any one issue. We hope to inspire and encourage those citizen activists to try out for the “major league” by helping them run for office on a platform of using math to represent their constituents rather than just voting based on their own personal preferences. But this will come down the road.

Right now, creating the best model for citizen engagement the world has ever seen is our only focus. In a nut shell, you can break our vision down into the three main concepts that the entire democratic process should be built on: trust, participation and representation.

Q. You talk a lot about a lack of “transparency” in the democratic process, Ben, even here in Vermont. Say more about this.

A. NewGrassRoots is focused on fundamentally improving the mechanics of citizen engagement in Vermont’s legislative process, so I’ll speak to transparency in that context. Currently in Vermont there is no mechanism or data for independently verifying how many constituents have contacted a given legislator in support or opposition to a specific bill. When legislators vote on bills, which they do to the tune of over 200 per year, there’s literally no way to objectively determine whether specific legislators are voting with the majority of their constituents or otherwise. Without underlying data, it’s absolutely impossible to verify exactly how representative Vermont’s legislative process really is.

NewGrassRoots was created to facilitate meaningful communication while capturing and making available engagement data. I’ve been personally and professionally committed to grassroots organizing in Vermont for over four years now and have worked with multiple statewide advocacy initiatives to pass specific legislation. I have a pretty solid understanding of how the math works, how to target specific districts with organizing efforts and how many contacts it actually takes to influence a legislator’s vote on a particular bill. Without comprehensive numbers in a particular district though, advocates are ultimately left with no choice but to take a legislator’s word for it regarding how many constituents contacted them and what the ratio of support to opposition was. This matters a lot because legislators often cite what they’re hearing from constituents when they’re justifying how they plan to vote on a bill. With no data to prove anything one way or another, publicly challenging what legislators tell us they’re hearing from constituents is not be productive.

This is extremely frustrating for grassroots organizers who work their butts off inspiring citizens to voice their opinions to legislators. There are varying opinions out there on whether a legislators is even obligated to represent constituents or whether they can just vote how they see fit, but again, without transparency, any conversation about real accountability is impossible. NewGrassRoots is not interested in policy outcomes, but only in building a process of participation that’s accessible to all and is trustworthy enough to inspire citizens to take the time to voice their opinion. Can you imagine watching or playing in a basketball game where the scoreboard doesn’t exist, and then arguing endlessly about who actually won? That’s essentially the case when it comes to grassroots advocacy initiatives attempting to pressure legislators. Both sides of the issues end up claiming they established a majority opinion in the same district. To not be able to make a determination with data on who is actually correct is completely unacceptable, especially in the modern age where all the tools to do it are right at our finger tips. Transparency does not guarantee specific outcomes, but it’s a game changer in terms of citizens’ ability to know for sure which side of an issue has a majority and whether that majority is actually being represented by legislators.

Q. Ben, how can NewGrassRoots support more “transparency” and accountability, specifically?

A. It amazes me how far behind the private sector our government is when it comes to leveraging modern communication and data management systems. There’s this new thing catching on called “software,” but it seems our elected officials haven’t quite figured that out yet. As we all watch this circus we call a presidential election play out, “the data” is often a focal point of the most important decisions being made. And rightfully so. From national poll numbers needed for candidates to get into a debate, to the extensive voter-data files the two major political parties use to target their ads at individual citizens, it’s the data that determines winners and losers. The fact that none of the data gathered on citizens is even made available to those very citizens is a travesty of modern democracy. We’ve built a system of transparency and accountability by taking industry-standard, customer service technologies from the private sector and adapted them to the citizen engagement process.

For instance, if I call any big box store with a question, they automatically capture my contact info, so the next time I call their system immediately recognizes me and pulls up my previous interactions with their company. The company uses that data to provide me better service in a more cost effective way. By aggregating individual call statistics, private companies can better understand what questions and products are most popular to their customers and can therefore adapt their services to better fit the needs of those they serve. We simply believes that legislators should provide at least the same level of attention and responsiveness to their constituents. Right now the specific objective of NewGrassRoots is to empower citizens to contact and influence their legislators on specific issues.

You could think of us kind of like a FedEx for civic engagement. We deliver and provide accountability for all messages we send.

After you create your free NewGrassRoots account, legislators can be contacted via any device that can surf the internet or with any touch-tone telephone. Our system combines the familiarity and personalization of a voice message with the data-management capacity of a modern web application, creating a similar experience to that of a modern call-center for democracy. We’re continuing to add features and make improvements as Vermonters provide feedback on their experience. You simply choose the specific legislation you’re advocating on, select “support” or “oppose,” and then record a one-minute voice message for one of your legislators. We attach a digital file of the audio recording to an email and automatically send it to the designated legislator. We track if/when your voice message has been listened to and notify you when it’s heard so you don’t have to wonder. From there, we’re able to aggregate call statistics statewide, by issue and district, to put some math to the questions of representation. We’ve worked with numerous advocacy organizations and hundreds of individuals over the past few years, providing important statistics that were leveraged to pressure key legislators to vote inline with their constituents. Legislators have never before had to answer to data from an external engagement platform, so it’s been interesting to see the reactions we’re provoking.

Heading into the 2017 legislative session, we’ll continue to build on the momentum of the last two years to give more Vermonters a meaningful voice in important policy decisions.

Q. What do you say to folks who fear digital technology, Ben, often with good reason?

A.  I’d say, whether you fear technology or not, it’s already being used in every facet of our lives. We can either embrace reality and try to use technology to the advantage of grassroots movements, or we can bury our heads in the sand and hope our problems resolve themselves. I do agree that there are applications of technology to legitimately fear, like bombing innocent people with remote controlled drones, governments illegally spying on their own citizens for no reason, not to mention the potentially disastrous uses of the most cutting-edge technologies, like nano-technology and artificial intelligence. These dangers are exactly why the legislative process is such a vital part of society. Our laws determine the accepted uses and applications of technologies, and if citizens aren’t making the rules than monied interests are. We have to face our fears about technology and make sure that the public’s interests are being protected while Silicon Valley innovates at lightning speed. I don’t see technology as a panacea of any sort, but it is a very powerful tool that gives major advantages to those who know how to use it effectively. All of corporate America uses technology to beat their competition, same goes for professional sports, the music industry, the entertainment industry, and of course both of the major political parties. NewGrassRoots is trying to be an equalizer for “we the people”, to neutralize some of the advantages that allow outside interests to dominate the political process. It’s time for a democracy to come from the ground up and technology is needed to make that happen. This presidential election is as much proof as anyone could need to see that we’re running out of time before our chances at a people-powered democracy are gone forever. Our fears of technology have to be balanced with the costs of conceding its power to the already powerful. Bottom line is, we don’t have much to lose because things are already out of control!

Q. Ben, how did you find your way to NewGrassRoots?

A. In 2010, after being gone for a decade, I moved back to my home-state as a proud, seventh generation Vermonter, primarily to get into regenerative farming. I worked as a consultant in the foreclosure industry in Colorado during the economic collapse of 2008. I experienced the collapse of our economy from inside the belly of the beast. I became disturbed at a very deep level by personally experiencing the human catastrophe our banks caused with their fraudulent lending practices, despite the fact I was making more money than I ever had. Late one night while contemplating life I came across the documentary, “Food, Inc.”, which exposes the human and environmental destruction that factory farming causes. The documentary also introduced me to Permaculture and other forms of regenerative land management practices which I think present viable solutions to the same problems caused by factory farming. Within six months of seeing this documentary my wife and I decided that reconnecting with the natural systems of mother earth would only be good for our bodies, minds and souls. So we made the move. I say all this to give context, because in late 2012, after the Occupy Wall Street movement had been sabotaged by our own government, I began to increase my awareness of how corporate lobbying allows industrial agriculture to manipulate policy and undermine the viability of small farms. I was finally inspired to get directly involved in the political process for the first time in my life. Further research of the lobbying industry lead me to the core issue of “money in politics.”

It happened that at just around that same time a national advocacy group called Wolf-PAC was gearing up efforts in Vermont to pass a resolution calling for an Article V Constitutional Convention, specifically to overturn the Supreme Court ruling known as Citizen’s United. In 2013, I became the lead grassroots organizer in Vermont on the resolution, JRS27. It was during this experience as a newbie to organizing that I learned all about the lack of data-management tools for grassroots advocacy. My frustrations as a grassroots organizer working to get big money out of politics led to the creation of NewGrassRoots, primarily as a solution to serve my own needs. Quite frankly, if I truly understood just how hard this project was going to be to bring to fruition, I doubt I would have jumped in with both feet as I did, launching my new, civic-tech startup within a few months of becoming a first-time father. With that said though, NewGrassRoots is an integral part of my identity and I’ve learned so much about the democratic process and myself along the way that I couldn’t have learned any other way. It’s by far the most stressful business endeavor I’ve ever embarked upon, but with all the positive feedback I continue to receive, I still wake up as excited about the possibilities as I did years ago.

I like to think I’m a little more realistic about how long of a journey this is actually going to be, but I know this is my calling. Despite the hard work that still lies ahead, I just have to look at my now two-year old daughter to reaffirm with myself that there’s no other option but to keep ploughing forward toward a more fair, just and equitable democratic process. Any less would be an abdication of what I know to be true, of my duties as a proud American and more importantly of my duties as a father.

Q. How can Vermonters get involved in NewGrassRoots, Ben?

A. Ah – my favorite question! People can get involved in NewGrassRoots is several ways. For folks who simply want a better way to communicate with legislators on specific legislation, please head right over to newgrassroots.com and create your free account. You’ll be able to search for legislation if you don’t already have a specific bill to advocate on, and then take meaningful action on the issue(s) you care most about. For those who are more seasoned organizers and activists, NewGrassRoots has a “Community Ambassador” program where we train, empower and support citizens to be stewards of the civic engagement process in their own districts.

Usually these are folks who already have specific issues they advocate on, but who also want to help ensuring that their legislators are being held accountable to constituents in general. And for the professionals who work in political advocacy, there’s an enterprise version of NewGrassRoots that’s built to serve the specific needs of organizations wanting better tools to engage their existing supporters, grow their list of supporters and most importantly to track the data on their engagement campaigns.

Lastly, we’re seeking to build relationships with innovative elected officials who want modern tools to better understand, manage and respond to their constituents’ needs. It’s shocking how many legislators don’t have any systems in place other than their email account to manage constituent communications. NewGrassRoots has received very positive feedback from the legislators who have already been receiving messages through our system so we put a lot of attention to improving the experience legislators have receiving and responding to our messages.

Definitely follow us on Twitter: @New_GrassRoots and on Facebook at: facebook.com/NewGrassRoots.

My email is: ben@newgrassroots.com and I can always be reached via phone at: 802-557-0246. We’re always happy to answer questions about our products, about our training sessions or about the legislative process in Vermont.

Q. Thanks for your visionary work here, Ben – and thanks for speaking with us.

Benjamin Brown is a regenerative farmer, technologist, political junkie, husband, father and seventh generation Vermonter, living with his wife and daughter in the town of Pittsford.