The much lauded, over talked about, and yet still enigmatic "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" - hosted by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert of the Daily Show and Colbert Report, respectively - is coming to the National Mall on the intentionally irrelevant October 30, 2010. Irrelevant, perhaps, except for its placement 3 days prior to the midterm Congressional elections.
Enough actual ink, and well more than enough bytes, have already been spilled - even vomited - out onto various print, television and internet sources regarding the Rally - what it will be, what it could mean, if it's a good idea, how many people will show, etc. - that I hardly need to add to it.
At least, not before there's anything to actually report.
Stewart and Colbert announced their - originally separate - events over a month ago, and while they continue to deny it, the concepts seems clearly to have originated as a lampooning of Glenn Beck's tearful "Rally to Restore Honor" that took place in August among considerable fanfare from the Fox network. That rally included "celebrity" appearances by Beck, as well as Tea Party darling Sarah Palin and a line up of Gospel, Country, & Contemporary Christian musical guests.
That rally - as I previously reported - had a few remarkable characteristics. It was overwhelmingly conservative and highly religious - that is, exclusively Christian - and was attended by the least diverse crowd of 87,000 that I have ever witnessed in one location in my life - and I'm from Oklahoma. The median age from my observation was 55+, and in 2 hours of walking around the entire footprint, I managed to count only 10 non-white attendees (not including the 16-person all-black Gospel choir on stage).
My endeavor with this weekend's Rally - which I will also be attending - is similar, and different. For Beck, I vehemently disagreed with the premise, and the host, of the event, but I was also suspicious of my ability to get an honest appraisal of it from different news media. I assumed Fox would over-inflate the important and attendance, while down-playing the more radical things that were said. I was also worried that more liberal news sources would negate the impact, or hyperbolize the crazy.
It turns out, these fears were almost totally realized. Various Fox pundits estimated a crowd of "over 100,000" "at least 300,000" and "almost a half-million" even days after the official attendance count was released confirming it at no more than 87,000.
The Rally to Restore Sanity, then, is also something I want to see first hand to ensure that I don't have to filter my information through various biases and slants. This is less of an issue, though, as Comedy Central has taken the extraordinary measure - even more amazing in that it outpaces Fox in its coverage - of broadcasting the entire 3-hour rally live. People at home, and those attending "satellite rallies" around the country, can reasonably expect to see and hear basically the same thing as attendees in DC.
And then of course there's the second reason I'm going: I have been a huge fan of Jon Stewart, and eventually his protege spinoff Colbert, for not just years, but now over a decade. Like any good indie band fan-boy, I always feel the need to defend my "I liked them before they were cool" credentials, but of course - no one cares. Regardless, I can comfortably claim to have been a devoted Daily Show fan since even before Stewart arrived on the scene, and quickly - although not immediately - converted to the new dogma. As my brothers may recall, I infamously said in regard to the announcement of Stewart's forthcoming takeover as host, "This Stewart guy might be funny, but he's no Craig Kilborn."
I tried - desperately - to maintain that mantra through the first episode, but by night #2 of the Jon Stewart era, I had to admit I was wrong. Way wrong.
Understanding the Stewart phenomenon - what he does, and why so many "younger people" are drawn to it - has also preoccupied an inordinate number of newspaper articles, magazine features, and on-line op eds. He's a comedian - just a comedian - and yet has become one of the most trusted sources for news and opinion among the 18-34 demographic. He hosts a 30 minute show 4 times a week, with no shortage of poop jokes and overtly photoshopped pictures, and yet he overshadows bombastic cable news heads and venerable network anchors. He was just granted a 30-minute interview with President Obama, a mind-boggling choice on the surface, but which resulted in some of the most reasoned, intelligent, and contentious discussions to date of the progress - and disappointments - of the past 2 years.
The comment I've heard the most, and the one which strikes closest to home for me, is that watching Stewart - and also Colbert, though in a different formula - allows those of us who feel disenchanted, frustrated, even betrayed by the complexities, corruption, and apparent stupidity of our national political, economic, and social systems to understand one thing - we're not alone.
I'll give an example: Dick Cheney awards a no-bid contract to his former company, Haliburton, to rebuild Iraq. The work is done poorly, slowly, and yet we keep paying them more and more money to essentially do nothing. All the while, it turns out Cheney is still receiving payments from the company that he steered not millions, but billions of dollars toward with minimal government oversight. If it happened in Russia - and it does - we would call it State oligarchy, gross corruption, etc. In America, we call it 'Politics as Usual.'
This is not just frustrating, it shakes one's faith in the very system under which our country operates. And yet - no one seems to be doing anything about it. Worse, no one even seems to be even saying anything about it! We worry that we're the only ones who think this is TOTALLY CRAZY, we feel isolated, as if we must be some sort of marxist radical just because we don't think big business buying off government contracts through back door nepotism is the best way to run a country. And in the silence of like-minded freak outs, we're left to assume that yes, everyone accepts this, because we are the ones who are off base.
But it is not so - most people find such abuses distasteful - we just need someone to remind us that it is the system that is crazy, not us. And that is what Stewart and his ilk supply. The New Yorker Magazine and others have put it more succinctly - Stewart stands up, from among the crowd, shrugs his shoulders, and self-debasingly points out that the emperor is, in fact, naked.
And we all sigh, and say things like, "yeah, totally! That's what I said! Who ever heard of invisible clothes, right?"
But how does this transition from television satire to (political?) rally?
Again, contrasting opinions abound, and I am more curious than certain as to what will transpire. Many have scoffed at the idea of Stewart being apolitical, accusing him of going soft on major Democratic figures like President Obama and Senator Kerry. I haven't seen that. As he's stated several times, and notably in the run-up to the 2004 election when Chris Matthews of Hardball asked if Stewart had an economic incentive for Bush to win - that is, it's easier to write critically of someone you despise, rather than someone you support. Stewart's response was that they satire the system, and that so long as the system remains comically absurd, the Daily Show writers will never be short on material. (note: Jon did admit that, given a VP with a man-sized security safe in his office and a former cocaine-using President, it would be hard to imagine a crazier cast of characters than the Bush administration).
But the Daily Show has continued just fine under the Obama years, in fact enjoying some of its highest ratings and year after year of Emmy awards. Colbert has done well too, with his even more "meta-" comedic assault on the mainstream media. In fact, on both shows, the witty crosshairs have driften, even well into the Bush presidency, away from political figures and more and more onto those professionals tasked with communicating and oversight: journalists, or now more broadly, "The media" - as many proponents have ditched journalistic objectivity in preference for partisan editorialism.
What I expect from the Rally is this:
1) It will be a predominantly younger crowd (median age in the late 20s/ early 30s)
2) It will be otherwise very diverse in terms of race, profession, religion, etc.
3) There will be lots of jokes aimed at both Democrats and Republicans
4) It will not be politically focused, perhaps not even having a strong politically neutral "get out the vote" message.
5) It will be a lot of fun.
Whether or not these expectations are proven correct or not, I will see - and perhaps you will see as well, on TV or at a local rally.
And I will follow up with my observations, some very biased (Jon is So Funny!) and others less so (crowd size, demographics, etc).
For the sake of trying it out, I will also be updating a twitter feed throughout the day, which you may follow @richardrweber. Having it broadcast on live TV does probably make this redundant, but I just can't resist.
In the spirit of the rally, I welcome any thoughts or criticism in the comments, unless of course you want to start shouting about Nazis and Armageddon. Though ironic, it just doesn't seem appropriate.
Weber
::(lame)Texpatriot
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