Monday, April 18, 2011

Feb. 19, 2009- The Rant Heard Around the Nation

On Feb. 19, 2009, the battle cry of "We're thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July. All you capitalists that want to show up to Lake Michigan, I'm gonna start organizing." while talking about the proposed federal mortgage relief plan, Rick Santelli, Chicago's west suburban native became impassioned, lambasting the Obama administration and calling for revolt.


And with that, sparked a national movement of the Tea Party Patriot with frustrations with high taxes, more spending and big government intrusion was born.

For some tea party faithful, Santelli's rant still serves as a rallying point.
"In retrospect, I think I was the lightning rod for many Americans to address their frustration with overspending and lack of representation of both political parties," Santelli said Friday.
There are roughly 90 local chapters across the state of Illinois alone, said Denise Cattoni of the Illinois Tea Party organization.

Today, Chicago's Tea Party Patriots had their rally at Daly Plaza and "If (Santelli) wanted to know how it feels to be treated like a god on Earth, all he needs to do is show up on Monday," said Steve Stevlic, director of the Chicago Tea Party Patriots. "We will put him on our shoulders and carry him around the city."

"I give (Santelli) complete credit for sparking the modern-day movement with those two words - Tea. Party," said Stevlic

Though he has never been active in the movement, Santelli recognizes what followed.

"Whether one agrees with their philosophy or not, the larger vision of so many people so active and so involved is uniquely American," he said.

3 comments:

Christopher - Conservative Perspective said...

I remeber the rant well mark and thanks for bringing it back to life!

Chris said...

The S and P negative credit rating is the biggest hit to our economy. Get ready for comodities to really go up now. Obama may have sunk the almighty dollar with his policies and Cass Sunsteins regulations. Buying our own debt should have put the stock market in acoma.

Unknown said...

Was my pleasure, Christopher. I'll never forget the day and thinking to myself 'This could bring on something big’...And it did.

Chris, my bet is this administration will ignore the threat from the S&P, but Americans are getting very worried about this situation with our rating.
As I have mentioned before, is this a deliberate intention to bring down a profit economy and institute a European Social Society?