MSNBC:

Wall Street rallies could be left’s Tea Party

…Liberals are optimistic that those protests will translate into the kind of lasting political movement achieved over the last two years by the Tea Party, which helped reshape the trajectory of American politics, particularly within the Republican Party.

…”It seems like on the weekend it finally hit the mainstream, and it’s become kind of a political left movement in the U.S., hopefully to rival the Tea Party,” said Kalle Lasn, the editor in chief of Adbusters, a leftist magazine that first developed the concept behind the demonstrations. “The Tea Party became the force it has become because it had tens of thousands of passionate people pushing up and influencing elections and policy. And now we’ll see if political left has the guts to do the same.”

…“I think they’re really touching a nerve,” Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, told MSNBC host Ed Schultz on his radio show Tuesday.

“I’m sure that there are political analysts who are looking at this in exactly that way. Whether that’s successful is another story and whether the movement grows or is co-opted is completely speculative,” said Michael J. Williams, the president of the liberal group Americans for Democratic Action.

…“I think this is a classic progressive, independent grassroots movement that will both build its own independent force, its own agenda and moral voice. And then you’ll see that try to find expression and accrue champions of that in the electoral arena,” said Robert Borosage, a co-director of the organization.

Let’s hope the Occupy Wall Street protests don’t turn to ugly violence. The Dems and left who are supporting it will look bad if that happens.