Not in 2009 when the Tea Party started. Not in 2010 when the Tea Party won the House for the GOP. But in 2011, when the Occupiers infested cities with filthy, disease-riddled shanty-towns.

From NewsBusters:

Time is so liberal it was obvious they could not consider the Tea Party protests as a Person of the Year entry. But that's not true with Occupy Wall Street, since Time's 2011 Person of the Year is suddenly now "The Protester."  Kurt Andersen's essay announced: "'Massive and effective street protest' was a global oxymoron until - suddenly, shockingly - starting exactly a year ago, it became the defining trope of our times. And the protester once again became a maker of history."

This is a bit bizarre since the regime being protested in the United States is the Obama administration elected by liberals like the Time editors and reporters. Suddenly now, America is a "sham democracy rigged to favor the rich and powerful and prevent significant change." Once again, Time blurs in Occupy protesters with Arab Spring activists:

"In Egypt the incitements were a preposterously fraudulent 2010 national election and, as in Tunisia, a not uncommon act of unforgivable brutality by security agents. In the U.S., three acute and overlapping money crises - tanked economy, systemic financial recklessness, gigantic public debt - along with ongoing revelations of double dealing by banks, new state laws making certain public-employee-union demands illegal and the refusal of Congress to consider even slightly higher taxes on the very highest incomes mobilized Occupy Wall Street and its millions of supporters. In Russia it was the realization that another six (or 12) years of Vladimir Putin might not lead to greater prosperity and democratic normality."

More at NB.