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But as sure as the followers of Farrakhan deserved more than UFOs, anti-Semitism and conspiracy theories, those of us who oppose the drug-war, who oppose the Patriot Act deserve better than Ron Paul.

It is not enough to simply proffer Paul as a protest candidate.One must fully imagine the import of a Paul presidency.How, precisely, would Paul end the drug war? What, exactly, would he do about the Middle East? How, specifically,would the world look for women under a Ron Paul presidency…

…The fervency for Ron Paul is rooted in the longing for a reedemer, for one who will rise up and cut through the dishonest pablum of horse-races and sloganeering and speak to the people. It is a species of saviorism which hopes to deliver a prophet upon the people, who will be better than the people themselves.

But every man is a prophet, until he faces a Congress.

- Ta Nehisi-Coates

“Extreme concentration of income is incompatible with real democracy. Can anyone seriously deny that our political system is being warped by the influence of big money, and that the warping is getting worse as the wealth of a few grows ever larger?”

- Paul Krugman

“If a Republican had been responsible for the foreign-policy markers of the past three years, the Party would be commissioning statues. In Tripoli, Benghazi, and Surt, last week, Obama won words of praise; on Republican debate platforms, there was only mindless posturing. In an election year, the world is too little with us.”

- David Remnick

“it was hard to see any “basic, pervasive evil” in the peaceable, affable crowds that marched yesterday into and out of downtown’s Pioneer Courthouse Square, from their 2:30 pm starting point at Waterfront Park. Though a long array of shopworn protest slogans were chanted, it was hardly a group in militarized lockstep but rather a broad cross-section of the disenchanted and the disenfranchised, young and old and in between: paired mothers and daughters were a not-uncommon sight, alongside elderly couples, wide-eyed college kids and the inevitable raft of the deeply radicalized. For the most part it just looked like “the people,” in the old optimistic sense of the phrase.

- Matthew Korfhage

“We have picked a fight with the most powerful economic and political forces on the planet. That’s frightening. And as this movement grows from strength to strength, it will get more frightening. Always be aware that there will be a temptation to shift to smaller targets—like, say, the person sitting next to you at this meeting. After all, that is a battle that’s easier to win.

Don’t give in to the temptation. I’m not saying don’t call each other on shit. But this time, let’s treat each other as if we plan to work side by side in struggle for many, many years to come. Because the task before will demand nothing less.

Let’s treat this beautiful movement as if it is most important thing in the world. Because it is. It really is.”

- Naomi 

“Protests should do three things: they should express anger, through marches and targeted civil disobedience, at a particular political or social situation. They should give people the opportunity to see that other people, even people different from themselves, share that anger. And they should provide a vision of how life would be better if the world were different. Occupy Wall Street is doing all three of those things.”

- A commentator on The Daily Dish (Andrew Sullivan)