"We're beginning at the grass roots rather than the administration coming in and saying we know what's right for you," said Rusty Payne, a spokesman for Ms. Bono.
"Young involvement in politics must begin at the grass-roots, the local level in their home towns.
They insist that nations and social systems exist by the virtue of the individuals who form them; therefore, the reform must begin at the grass-roots with individuals and not at the higher level of political structure.
Preparations for the Congress began with party congresses at the grass-root and provincial-levels, during which delegates were elected.
Their views could have helped understand the programme's implementation at the grass-root level in a better way.
"It was only after we had crisscrossed the country and began to build support at the grass roots, largely unrecognized in Washington, where Kennedy was dismissed as being too young, too Catholic, too little known, too inexperienced," Mr. Sorensen said in the interview.
Yet despite the widespread arrests of activists, including the well-known artist Ai Weiwei, many of those who began the grass-roots push for change remain active.
Street-food venders' working lives take place at the grass roots; you can't get any more local.
"It's essential to talk to the American people now," Mr. Romero said, "because there is a beginning of a debate and a dialogue at the grass roots".
Much of the effort is at the grass roots.
