J: Right, like a true democracy.

Y: 你說的一點沒錯。這一類的自發(fā)性群眾活動正是美國民主的基礎(chǔ)。

J: Here's another definition of grassroots campaigning that I liked a lot from Michael.

Y: 好，我們再聽聽Michael的觀點。

實錄2 Michael Briggs: If I had to define grassroots campaigning, I would think that it's people working with each trying to really bring democracy to life, share ideas, get people involved behind their candidate, trying to change minds, and raise awareness about an issue or a politician.

Y: 哎，Jody，我突然想到，grassroots campaign這個說法是怎么來的呢？

J: Oh, you know, I was curious about the origin, or the roots, haha, get it? Grassroots...anyway. I was curious about that myself. So let's have Michael help us out again.

實錄3 Michael Briggs: My understanding of it is that grass has roots that are very broad, and they're not very deep but they broad. The way grass grows is it sends its roots out and then sprouts and those sprouts send more and more roots out. So it's about a chain reaction or a growing web of people that over time come to life.

Y: 中文里的“grassroots”就是草根的意思。草的生命力很旺盛，它的根部蔓延得很快，用這個詞來形容這種基層群眾活動非常形象。另外，Michael說的chain reaction就是連鎖反應(yīng)的意思。

J: The more people you reach out to, the more people they reach out to, and so on, and so on and so on. I'd say that joining a grassroots campaign is the best to empower yourself.

Y:你說得沒錯。這種親身參與確實有一種鼓舞人心的力量。

J: That's why a woman named Catayune joined a grassroots campaign to elect a political candidate.

實錄4 Catayune: My name is Catayune and I live in Washington DC. I grew up in Ohio. Grassroots campaign helps me because it means that ideas and emphasis and energy comes up from the grassroots, from everyday citizens. So it helps empower everyday citizens to really have a voice in national politics.

Y: 你覺不覺得今天我們采訪的這幾個人他們都強調(diào)群眾參與，每個公民都應(yīng)該發(fā)出自己的聲音這樣一種概念，這也正是群眾運動的意義所在。

J: Well, what do you think, Yang Chen. Joining a big group of people and fighting for the same common goal doesn't it sound exciting?

Y: 嗯，太讓人激動了。

J: You don't sound very 激動了. Come on let's go join everyone and take part in the grassroots campaign.

Y: 那就走吧，還等什么呢？

J: Thanks for joining us on American Cafe. We gotta go! See ya!