Santelli Proud of Tea Party Protests

Remember this? The clip that started it all?



Well apparently Santelli is proud of the nationwide movement he helped spur:

“A lot of articles about these tea parties,” Kernen said. “They all have your name in them, like you caused it. Are you actually attending any or are you just sort of got the idea going initially? What do you think? I mean, you’re like a cultural phenomenon at this point.”

Santelli didn’t shy away. He called the rallies American and said he was proud of what he inspired.

“I don’t know about cultural phenomenon, but I’ll tell you what,” Santelli said. “I think that this tea party phenomenon is steeped in American culture and steeped in American notion to get involved with what’s going on with our government. I haven’t organized. I’m going to have to work to pay my taxes, so I’m not going to be able to get away today. But, I have to tell you – I’m pretty proud of this.

He also said despite the claims from others in the media, including people at CNBC’s sister network MSNBC, calling the movement “Astroturf,” Santelli declared it a grassroots movement.

“I think from a grassroots standpoint, I’m sure some of the media out there is not going to peg it that way, but isn’t it about as American as it gets – for people to roll their strollers and make their signs and go voice their opinion about the direction of the country?” Santelli said. “Good, bad or indifferent – that’s a great thing. There’s not a lot of countries, of course, that afford their people that, that type of right. It’s a great thing.”

I was just thinking. There might be one aspect to these protests that will force people to pay attention. You see, unlike hippy/liberal protests, these protests will be attended by people that have jobs. That means there will be many thousands of people taking time off of work to attend. So at the very least, their employers will take notice.