I think you're view of our voting is rather rosy, I get to "vote" for the candidates that are presented to me, I have absolutely no say in who gets on any ballot above a local level. Voting fraud due to gerrymandering, the dead voting, and intimidating certain groups at the polls are great American past-times. That doesn't even count the new tricks, such as rigged electronic voting machines and super-PACs.

There's a reason America has such a horrid turn out for voting and it's not due to the oh-so-popular myth of the fat, lazy Americans. It's because voting here is terribly alienating and it's set up that way on purpose. The only people under the illusion that voting does all that much are the people who vote whichever way the fear mongers in the media are pressuring them, because they fear death panels, the end of all jobs, or whatever.

It takes a serious stretch of the imagination to assert that the democratic process is working here. We have congressman complaining that campaigning takes away from their actual job and that now the super-PAC issue is like being beholden to the mob, "Nice campaign you have there, sure re-election bid, be a shame if someone ran 2 million dollars in attack ads in the final 3 weeks leading up until the election. Now let's talk about your position on issue X..." Yes, this is really happening. And you know it's bad if congressman are complaining about it.

I didn't compare my cause to MLK Jr.'s, simply measured him by the yardstick you used to illustrate your yardstick was flawed (essentially the caricature you presented of the complaining American that has a BMW or whatever and would prefer a Rolls, and has a daddy that can afford to give him either) . After all, most of the people fighting Jim Crow-ism weren't gunned down in the streets or under threat of many of things you described happening in Cambodia; regardless they had a legitimate problem. MLK himself spent like 11 days in jail and then another 4 later on, iirc (he was sentenced for more but the President intervened on his behalf - I'm not trying to minimize what MLK Jr. did but this isn't quite the same as having an entire, murderous system bent on killing you).

So, you may think OWS or whatever doesn't have that much of a point and I'll just keep pointing out they do, they have a real reason to gripe about it, they are actually alienated to various degrees from both our political and economic systems here in the US, and for all the bitching people do about their methods those same bitchers hold up MLK Jr. and the Boston Tea Partiers as patriots and they did the same shit (what, anyone going to dispute that the Boston Tea Party disrupted commerce and destroyed profits? Anyone going to claim no one went hungry or was hurt by it? Yeah that's what I thought).

I never said you weren't entitled to your opinion, I merely said I think your opinion is wrong (as in, doesn't reflect reality), most likely due to misinformation or misunderstanding.