I can only speak for the Atlanta protest, but it was just sad. Your regular ATL assortment of Occupy types, militia looking folks open carrying guns in tactical

I can only speak for the Atlanta protest, but it was just sad. Your regular ATL assortment of Occupy types, militia looking folks open carrying guns in tactical vests, copwatch groups, guy fawkes mask wearers, random college age people, and the single Georgia Capitol Police Officer sitting in his car across the street. I don't think it ever topped 100 people. No matter your opinion of them, the Tea Party was very successful at staging effective protests. Occupy was a total failure. (At least in ATL, most people supported OWS until Occupy ATL, at which point they were almost universally hated. Living a block from the park occupied, and having my bldg regularly used as a urinal by a group who, due to no decision making structure, could not agree whether or not they should have violent protests, I agree.) The difference? Tea party protests in every city were orchestrated by some group (that was likely more astro-turfing than grass roots) that chose the speakers, invited guests with name recognition to speak, and kept the "fringe looking types" in the crowd and not the stage, and were generally more like attending a concert than protesting in the street. For a protest to be effective, you need to get turn out from the mass population. The Occupy style no leadership sadly does not seem to work. I believe the unfortunate reality is you need a stable legal organization like the Tea Party, the NRA, MADD, etc to actually create long term political change. If we had a National Privacy Association with millions of dues paying members, we could have congress blocking the NSA at every step.