Read and decide for yourself if Steve Moore‘s observations seem familiar:

The burning heart of liberal activism and indignation this summer can be found, of all places, in the charming capital city of the Tar Heel State. On Monday, for the 11th week in a row, thousands of protesters descended on the copper-domed Capitol denouncing the policies of a Republican Party that for the first time since Reconstruction controls North Carolina’s governorship and legislature. Some 800 agitators have been arrested for disrupting the legislature. By all accounts, these “Moral Monday” rallies, though peaceful, are growing in size and volume.

The rallies have caught the eye of the national media, with some referring to Raleigh as the “Madison of the South.” Madison, of course, is the famously liberal capital of Wisconsin that turned into a political frying pan in February 2011 when the state’s Republican lawmakers reformed union collective-bargaining rules.

Thom Goolsby, an outspoken GOP state senator, has jokingly dismissed the protests in Raleigh as “Moron Mondays” and predicted that they would fade in the weeks ahead. Perhaps, but the stated goal of the organizers is that these rallies evolve into the same kind of political tour de force on the left that the tea party has become on the right. Moral Mondays may be coming soon to a state capital near you.

But not Madison. It’s already been there.

So what are liberals of all stripes so angry about in North Carolina? I put that question to the organizer of the Moral Monday movement, Rev. William Barber II, a loquacious, likable and politically shrewd preacher and leader of the North Carolina NAACP. (Think Jesse Jackson, but with charm and genuine conviction.) He preaches “civil disobedience” and trains peaceful demonstrators on how to get arrested. He is also a master at political theater.

After a near-five minute sermon about how Republicans have made the state a “crucible of extremism and injustice,” it became clear the answer to my question is he and his followers are mad as hell about, well . . . everything. The list of grievances is long but includes unemployment-insurance cuts that took some 70,000 recipients in the state off the rolls, state lawmakers’ refusal to sign up for ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion, a proposed voter-ID law, and of course “tax cuts for the rich.”

This past Monday marchers were waving signs that read “Justice for Trayvon Martin,” “Stop Fracking in North Carolina,” and “Vouchers Destroy Public Schools.” In recent weeks, demonstrators were out in force demanding abortion rights. …

One common complaint is that the state is passing up free money by rejecting Medicaid expansion. But many financially pinched states—including Georgia, Alabama, Utah and Texas—are doing so, not because they’re coldhearted but because while the feds pick up the full tab in the first several years, eventually the states will have to pay even more money into a broken system that is already sapping state budgets. …

Rev. Barber and the other “religious progressives” say their goal is a new “southern fusion” that unites every ethnic, religious and interest group promoting modern liberalism to repel the tide of conservative policies on the march, not just in North Carolina, but all across the South. His warning to national liberals is, “If Republicans get away with this in North Carolina, with our moderate and centrist heritage, they can do it anywhere.” He’s planning a national Moral Monday rally in Washington, D.C., in August. …

But as longtime Republican strategist Marc Rotterman told me last week, there is a potentially fatal flaw to the whole “Moral Monday” strategy: “The core problem is the protesters are denouncing policies like tax cuts and welfare reforms that may be unpopular with the New York Times, but are very popular with mainstream North Carolinians.” That is the big bet the state’s Republicans are making—and come November 2014, we’ll see if it pays off.

Something else about this should seem familiar to Wisconsinites. One of the parrot points of the Wisconsin left is the evil of any policy idea that came from outside our state lines — specifically from the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that offers model legislation on such pernicious concepts as sound government finances. Unable to argue (or maybe uninterested in arguing) the merits of policy proposals, the lefties shriek in horror at proposals Not Invented Here. Note as well the political trope of claiming that you are the moderate, sensible side, as opposed to those extremist radicals on the other side.

In contrast, the Tar Heel variation of Protestarama is perfectly happy to spread their discontent at being in the political minority like kudzu across the South. They’re right, because how successful would giving blacks the right to vote or ending Jim Crow laws have been had they stopped at one state line?

Ideas should be judged on their merits, not on their source, or what odious (in your opinion) political figure or personality supports or opposes them. And blaming your discontent with the political winners or losers on the process is the Lament of the Loser.