Really great article illustrating the pitfalls of the 'networked protest'. Yet I disagree with the defeatist conclusion of "Maybe, in the end, the system is the powerless person’s best bet".
In my view what is needed is a new way of organizing, identifying leaders, assigning roles and creating and executing a coherent longterm strategy. Its the task of creating explicit nodes of authority within a decentralized system. Creating these systems is not as glamorous and satisfying as attending a march or fuming in social media, but it is definitely much much more than "call your senators".