The vast majority of the public has no idea how all this went down.
Freerepublic is a tiny, activist group of conservatives and libertarians.
The rest of the country has to be told of what is going on.
Doing it all at once, with massive, unexplained arrests, is a no-go.
This is a very positive outcome, because it is not aimed at the believing activists, but at the nation.
Even the New York Times is being forced to report on it.