A reality of American politics is that people almost always hate protestors at the time. They disapprove of their methods and insist they hurt their own cause. They are only popular after the fact when history had proven them correct.
In the 2008-09 GFC, about 30 million Americans lost their homes. The guy on the left ignored Soros, Krugman, and Stiglitz's more progressive advice and followed Larry Summers's recommendation to just save the bankers and let the mortgage holders drown. That's more or less how.