Over 700 protesters were arrested on Saturday for blocking traffic on the Brooklyn Bridge as they took part in the 15th day of the Occupy Wall Street protest.

Occupy Wall Street is a leaderless protest movement comprised mostly of Americans under 30 years old who are upset with anything from rampant foreclosures to climate change to the sluggish economy, from the low number of vegan farms to the high unemployment rate, from the war in Afghanistan to high gasoline prices, from corporate greed to the general state of America and the planet.

If that sounds like a loose spray of dissatisfaction, it is an apt description of the varied grievances motivating the Occupy Wall Street protesters. In just over two weeks, Occupy Wall Street has become a force that countless disaffected protesters can associate themselves with, and during a year when the lion’s share of Americans say the nation is off track, there is an abundance of new potential recruits.

Late last week, veteran activist Bill McNulty shared his view of the protests with Slate reporters on location in downtown Manhattan: “Generally speaking, the population is thoroughly taken by the myth that things are as they are being presented to them. Now that the reality is hitting them so hard—their pensions are disappearing, their houses are being foreclosed on—they’re organizing,” he said. McNulty had no complaint with the variety of causes motivating the demonstrators. “All these diverse messages here, they’re in the process of being connected to Wall Street.”

Here is a sampling of the slogans on the signs the protesters wielded:

The Occupy Wall Street protesters are only thousands strong, but they claim to speak for millions. The degree to which these protesters represent mainstream America is questionable, but a cbs poll published Monday shows that 64 percent of Americans believe taxes on millionaires should be raised to reduce the nation’s deficit. Such a sentiment is parallel to many of the protesters’ anger over what they perceive as a broken system serving a wealthy elite at the expense of the rest.

Columbia University Political Science Prof. Dorian Warren said he believes the protests could develop into something with teeth. “The country as a whole is not happy,” he said. “Eight out of 10 Americans are not satisfied with the direction of the country. So they’re just expressing what people have been saying.”

Following the 700 arrests on Sunday, some protesters claimed that the New York Police Department used excessive force—tear gas, pepper spray, and slamming a protester down onto a sidewalk—for peaceful protesters. Activists say the “excessive force” has only served to bolster their resolve.

After more than two weeks of protests, the people are now getting backing of powerful labor unions and big names in liberalism like documentarian Michael Moore, ex-White House adviser Van Jones, Princeton Prof. Cornel West and actress Rosanne Barr. Sympathetic demonstrations have also popped up in Chicago, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington, Providence and Albuquerque, and are also showing up online.

“We Are the 99 Percent,” is a Tumblr launched in connection with Occupy Wall Street which features hundreds of testimonies from Americans affected by the economic downturn. It is a forum where the “99 Percent,” or ordinary Americans, can voice their discontent with the wealthiest 1 percent of citizens. Protesters opened the site on August 23, asking readers to submit their personal stories along with a photograph.

The Tumblr’s introduction reads:

We are the 99 percent. We are getting kicked out of our homes. We are forced to choose between groceries and rent. We are denied quality medical care. We are suffering from environmental pollution. We are working long hours for little pay and no rights, if we’re working at all. We are getting nothing while the other 1 percent is getting everything. We are the 99 percent.

Among the stories on the website are one from a victim of job cuts doubting that he’ll find employment again so late in his career, a veteran of the war in Iraq questioning the sacrifice he made for his country, a cancer patient working in a factory to pay for her medications, and a recent college graduate struggling with overwhelming student loans and only a part-time job.

According to Dan Gainor of Foxnews.com, the Occupy Wall Street movement is “more than just another looney protest movement” from leftists. “These protests do reflect the genuine economic fears that many Americans feel,” he said, and pointed out that the decentralized nature of the protests makes the movement “a classic catch-all designed to placate enough various radical agendas to garner media support.”

Now in their third week, the Occupy Wall Street protests seem to be growing in strength despite, or perhaps because of, this weekend’s mass arrests. And some analysts believe the disparate streams of Occupy Wall Street’s dissatisfaction could be channeled into one collective force of activism, transforming the movement into a liberal counterpart to the conservative Tea Party movement. To understand the possible implications of the burgeoning unrest in the United States, read Trumpet columnist Robert Morley’s analysis “The Riots Will Come” and his column this week.