> I'm confused. Several hundred posters to a blog are a greater social
> force than over a hundred thousand people gathered in the nation's
> capital in a demonstration that received sympathetic coverage in all the
> major media?
A network of motivated and engaged people is far more powerful than a mass gathering of spectators.
Contrast the political accomplishments of the anti-globalization movement to the current anti-war movement. See articles on networking as a strategy of dissent.
One of the lessons I learned as a young activist in the 1980s is that rallies and demonstrations tend to dissipate energy and disempower people. They get disillusioned when there is no way to follow-up with practical action. Protests also create an esprit--which several LBOsters have pointed out--that peters out quickly after a protest ends.
Chuck0