A New American Tea Party?

You may have heard Rick Santelli on CNBC last week ranting against the proposed mortgage bailout offered by B.H.O. that would cost taxpayers another coupla hundred billion plus or minus. At the heart of "Rick's Rant" is not the financial cost of the bailout. Its the moral one:

'The government is promoting bad behavior... do we really want to subsidize the
losers' mortgages... This is America! How many of you people want to pay for
your neighbor's mortgage? President Obama are you listening? How about we all
stop paying our mortgage! It's a moral hazard'...

Reading the guy's words in print doesn't really do him justice. Also, you don't get a feel for the atmosphere on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade, where Santelli stood during his tirade. As he mentioned Obama's policy the floor traders booed in unison, suggesting a rising tide of populist righteous indignation against the whole bailout mentality. He must have struck a nerve, especially in calling for a "Chicago Tea Party:" he drew a sharp rebuke from Obama's spokesman Joe Gibbs, which only served to raise Santelli's profile and his new found cause.


In case you didn't catch the video, you really owe it to yourself to take a look here. Agree or disagree with Santelli, its gratifying to see someone who is not named Keith Olbermann in full rant mode.


Santelli is not the only one calling for a new American Tea Party. Michelle Malkin over at Michellemalkin.com is doing a great job of marshalling her formidable column- and blog-writing assets as well as her gig at Pajamas Media TV into a force for conservative/libertarian activism. Her main target is the "porkulus" plan signed by the president last week but the "tea party" movement she is encouraging (if not actually leading) is destined to tap into the whole anti-bailout/stimulus/entitlement sentiment out in the land. Malkin has noted successful protests in Seattle, Denver, Mesa AZ, and Overland Park KS so far and reports on other cities in the works.


For most of us the idea of carrying placards at a street protest is something repugnant and distasteful, better left to abortion extremists (pro and con) and other losers. Indeed, Michelle points out that it is much harder to get taxpayin' hard-workin' folks out to protest than it is to get busloads of hard core liberal activists to show up, especially those already on the government dole. Yet some of the anti-pork protests have seen as many as 500 folks show up, including college students who don't cotton to the idea of working their tails off for the next 50 years to cover Amtrak's losses or pay for a bunch of deadbeats' mortgages.


For a 13 minute review of the anti-bailout activities of the last week or so, please see PJTV's Glenn Reynolds interview of Michelle.


If you are riled up enough by all the bailouts and want to just "do something," or simply want to follow the progress of the rolling protests going on out there, I suggest you add MichelleMalkin.com to your favorites button. I am certain that an event is coming sooner or later to a city near you.