Post date: Oct 30, 2010 10:45:48 PM
Thousands of people gather in Washington D.C. for a festive call to "restore sanity" to American political discourse.
WASHINGTON D.C. (OCTOBER 30, 2010) REUTERS - Television comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert drew tens of thousands of people to the National Mall on Saturday (October 30), promising to skewer partisan politics three days before contentious U.S. elections. The Comedy Central hosts' "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" started off as part slapstick comedy show and part outdoor festival concert.
"There really is a great group of moderates in the middle who just want sanity and we're not getting it because it doesn't make good TV," David Eckel of North Carolina explained. Eckel had come to Washington to attend the rally and promote a philosophy contest which calls for people to argue great questions of the day in a reasonable manner
"This may be the silent majority. I think they've come out pretty strong right?" Karen Kneeley of New Jersey observed as she held a sign that said simply "I support this sign."
Reasonability seemed to be the theme of the day as people crowded onto the National Mall on a sunny afternoon. Laurie Batchelor, from nearby Laurel, Maryland, held a sign saying "decaffeinate the tea party" a reference to the upstart conservative movement which began by calling for boisterous protests at town hall meetings across the country and is now poised to put some of its candidates in the U.S. Congress.
"We're big fans of John Stewart and Stephen Colbert and we wanted to be a part of a great event and decaffeinate the the tea party," she and her husband explained.
Others just wanted their fellow countrymen to lower the tone.
"I really like the idea of restoring sanity to our discourse. I really like the idea of John Stewart calling people on their shit," Maddy Park of California explained, "I think there's a lot of noise going on and I like the idea of people thinking clearly."
The rally, widely viewed as a response to "August's "Restoring Honor" rally organized by conservative talk show host Glenn Beck, blurred the lines between satire and political activism. The Comedy Central hosts, who target Washington and its politicians regularly in their mock newscasts, avoided overt references to the Democrats and Republicans battling for control of Congress and governorships in Tuesday's elections. But Stewart took on a left-leaning persona advocating a "return to sanity," while Colbert called for a "return to fear.