A fair question. Our history of dissent has a lot of local protest, and of course some DC protest. Is there no OWS group in DC now? Hell, we've even got some here in Calgary (Canucks know how to dress for cold, lol). Anyway, I would think logistics is the main reason. Edit: It's not entirely logical, no, but it is the norm. Power is always telling dissent to go somewhere else, you've "got the wrong guy". In our digitized age an argument could be made that it matters even less where the protests occur, the status quo are going to hear about them one way or another.
They can make themselves heard in multitude of ways that dont hurt innocent people, its one thing for a bunch of hipsters to make themselves heard by holding drum circles all over America, its a totally different thing to make yourself heard by ruining innocent peoples lives. Timothy McVeigh was trying to make himself heard, and you wouldnt have supported his actions.
In an ideal world Power would recognize Dissent's grievances, understand the implications, and act accordingly. But it rarely ever does, and why should it, if there is no cost to ignoring it? Dissent is messy, always has been. It's better to not let your society get unfair in the first place.
So basically you are saying that "The end justifies the means." Tell me something, until what point does the "end justify the means" in your eyes? How far do they have to go, and how many innocent people's lives have to be ruined before you will admit that these guys are just becoming a nuisance? I find it funny because not to long ago when the Tea Partiers were alot more active the left was calling right wingers who called for a revolution whackos but you seem to be supporting the exact same thing.
It depends on the end we're talking about. The means should not exceed the magnitude nor importance of the end. We want voting, democracy to be a peaceable way of achieving change, but the perception is that top government is all 1%'rs now anyway. And that's largely true. Yes, right wingers calling for an overthrow of government because "we're taxed too high" were and are whackos. Not to mention the self-important but actually terrified chest-drummers who showed up at large public gatherings with automatic weapons. Oh, and the moonbat rightwing crazies who've just been discovered in Georgia.
You mean these guys? The Neo Nazi socialists who showed up to protest with the OWS movement? <object style="height: 390px; width: 640px"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rjOwSIsgE8c?version=3&feature=player_embedded"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rjOwSIsgE8c?version=3&feature=player_embedded" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowScriptAccess="always" width="640" height="360"></object>
The only reason they call themselves "socialist" is because they think jews own capitalism and they hate jews.
And the people who call for a bigger government, and more spending while all of Europe is going up in flames due to socialism are the sane ones?
At any rate, we both know there's enough bad to go around, enough for both parties. You've acknowledged this yourself on good days. The only reason, by your own admission, that you continue to smear is because the other team did it. We're too focused on the symptoms. "For every thousand hacking at the branches there is but one chopping at the root."