I know this is an old subject but I just want to ask

Cooley Hurd is absolutely correct. Freedom Works paid transportation, etc etc.

We're really good at the circular firing squad, and really bad at the kind of prompt, ruthless blowback operations that the right-wing excels at. Wisconsin was such a big deal because it was well executed in a way that's rare for us.

On edit: Take a comparison for instance to those financed astroturf rallies mentioned upthread. The counter on our side was house parties organized by MoveOn, to quietly try and get people educated on the nuances of healthcare reform, whereas the right-wing's response was to take a very simple message and hammer it through every available bit of media.

A really effective response would have been mass rallies with every single person hammering home simple points like medical decisions by doctors not bureaucrats, your life is worth more than their stock price, simple understandable points that would sound good to the low-information public.

"but if you get perspective from outside the bubble you realize that they're ineffectual and a joke. " Your "perspective" from outside the bubble. So you think code Pink is a joke and Occupy is a joke, what do you think about moveon.org?

They're rocking the house in Greece and they do it quite often in England... heck they kidnapped CEOs in France.

Sigh.

It's hard to organize a rally against a crowd of stupid people, and most people on the left weren't thrilled about a health care plan that didn't even have a watered-down public option.

Medicare for All was a bill at the time (at the tail end, at least). The Public Option was fighting for its life all along.

Where were the protests in favor of that?

Obama's plan sucks. Progressives know all Americans should have affordable care without providing
profits for the one percenters.

You must have a theory, right?

screaming not just for the Public Option, but for Medicare for All.

There were hundreds of thousands of people in Wisconsin. Perhaps a million Occupiers.

Why didn't they protest in 2009? I don't know.