Before yesterday, many in the media were asking, “What is Jon Stewart trying to say with his Rally to Restore Sanity?” They thought it must be political if it came just before Election Day. They thought it would be a rally for the extreme left, a knee-jerk reaction to Glenn Beck’s rally. They thought it would be a rally attended only by young, hip Stewart fans. And some thought it would be some silly little event put on by “just” a comedian.
It was none of those things, and all of them. On a beautiful fall day, more than 200,000 ordinary Americans gathered in Washington to have fun, listen to some good music, and enjoy the sort of comedy that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert are famous for. At the end of the 3-hour show, Stewart got a bit more serious. He talked about the America he knows and loves, the America we all experience most of the time — when we aren’t caught up in election fever and partisan political diatribe.
If the mainstream media didn’t know what the rally was all about, that’s their problem. Fans at the rally and those watching on TV knew. And that’s all that matters.
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The last time I went to a rally attended by 100,000 people was over 20 years ago and I still remember having to sleep in the bed of my pickup after walking forever to find it and only then realizing that I couldn’t go anywhere until the multitudes of parked cars began to move. Since then I’ve heard of nothing that would motivate me to repeat that experience. I’m glad that there are still people who haven’t had their fill of mass meetings and who even still enjoy them, but as long as I can watch their highlights on Pied Type, or YouTube – they aren’t for me anymore. So call me an old fuddy duddy. I can live with it.
Notice I’ve updated the attendance figure. CBS News estimated the crowd at 215,000 and one Canadian news source put it at 250,000.
I realized while watching the rally that I’d never have been able to stand there for 3 hours. Not to mention all the walking to get there and back from wherever. These days I probably couldn’t even manage all the walking and stair climbing at a college football game. I guess that makes me an old fuddy duddy too.
I could never tolerate such a crowd either, but I watched some of the live stream from the web. Fuddy duddy me three!
That this pair of The Media’s keenest observers comes from Comedy Central … is it irony? I don’t know. I do know that the folks in the cross-hairs of Stewart’s and Colbert’s comedy are often unable to get the jokes.
The hyperbole spewing from Those Like Beck is sad and frightening. They only seem able to weep and gnash their teeth at how The Liberals Have Ruined Everything. This stance of blamestorming sucks the life out of any of real and good ideas coming from the right.
“Blamestorming.” Great word! That’s all this campaign has been. So exhausting and discouraging, and yes, frightening.