Well, I've caught up on my sleep from the past weekend, so I feel it's time to crack open the blog and post something about the rally. For those of you who don't watch The Daily Show or The Colbert Report, or news programs for that matter, there was a small gathering of people in Washington DC this weekend. I've been reading a lot of the media coverage of the event since we left on Saturday for the drive home, and it's been interesting.
First off, there was the sheer size of the crowd. I think the unofficial number has been pegged to be around 215,000 at the moment. And while this was a political rally, whether Stewart will admit to it or not, people were extremely polite. Of course there were people pushing and shoving to get closer to the stage or to get better views. But were they rude about it? No. Did fights break out? I'm sure they did, but nothing got out of hand from what I've heard. It was a polite gathering of moderate people who wanted their government to know they exist and they vote.
I will say I think it was bullocks that the area closest to the stage were for people with special tickets. I can't complain too much, though. We were only about 20 feet behind the barricade between us and that section. We arrived around 9 AM and it was already packed. The signs were all great, properly spelled and grammatically correct. One of my favorite signs in my immediate area said "It's a sad day when our policiticans are comical and I have to take my comedians seriously." I regret not making one that said "See, I can spell. Your tax dollars at work." And I don't like the fact that it was a cell phone dead zone. I couldn't call, text, tweet or do anything on Facebook until about 6 when we finally got out of the city, despite the presence of several AT&T vans.
However, if you focus on the fact that it was an overblown comedy show with a bunch celebrities or as a giant publicity stunt would be to misconstrue the entire event, I think. We are all Americans, whether we are Democrat, Republican, black, white, Christian or Muslim. The vast majority of us are perfectly reasonable people. Just look at the turnout for a rally aimed at a group of disengaged moderates (215,000 for this) vs. the turnout for a rally aimed at an engaged, extreme fringe group (87,000 for Beck's rally). The people want their politicians working together and not pandering to the extreme fringes of their base. And Jon's intentions for the rally aren't that far from this goal. If you've seen his speech at the end of the rally, he says he wanted this to be essentially a rally against the 24 hour news networks who hyperbolize everything and pit one side against the other, with no input from the middle. While it makes for great TV (see: the back-and-forth between Olbermann, Maddow, MSNBC vs. Beck, O'Reilly, Fox News, Limbaugh), it does not aid our political discourse. If all the news networks do is scream at each other that they are right and the other side is wrong, you're not accomplishing anything. Talk to me and try to convince me that you're right. Don't yell at me and call me a socialist just because I believe social welfare programs and universal healthcare are good ideas. Give me evidence of why you're right and I'd be more willing to accept your ideas. I'd also tell you that while I agree with you in some aspects, such as people taking advantage of such systems, that the government is there to legislate and reform broken systems, so if you want people to stop abusing it, vote for someone who will reform. Politics shouldn't be a shouting match to the death.
I know we live in an era that demands instant results from everything, and the news networks don't help that at all. We want our news as it happens, and we want everything analyzed for us so that we don't think for ourselves. Two years is entirely too early to judge Obama's presidency. Everything he has accomplished (health care reform, Wall Street reform, etc.) has been drowned out by the right-wing media saying what he's done are either wrong and need to be repealed or just ignoring them and trying to perpetuate the myth that nothing has been done. Or the left-wing media has been saying, yes, but it's not enough. It's been 2 fucking years! I know he promised a lot during his campaign, but government moves at a snail's pace. The news networks and the internet move at lightning speed and the hyper-polarization of politics is just the knee-jerk reaction the news networks have to the slower pace of government. They take a single story and analyze the living crap out of it. And by analyze, I mean they either have people on with conflicting views and have them duke it out or they have a bunch of yes-men on, play video of the other guys talking and then go on to bash them and their views. Either way, nothing gets accomplished because they really aren't talking about solutions, only why they are right and the other person is wrong.
I think at this point, the parties have been reduced to caricatures of themselves, each portrayed as the people on the fringe left or right, instead of a complex party of people who really range from the middle, moderate area of the political spectrum to the fringe on the left or right. I'll gladly admit that I do politically lean to the left and I consider myself a Democrat, however I would vote for a Republican if I find one with whom I can agree with on the issues. It isn't about what side of the fence you're on, it's about who will get the job done.
And to those people who just think this wasn't something to be taken serious, I remind you that comedy is an important lens through which to see the world. Jesters, you'll remember, were the only ones who were allowed to mock the aristocracy back in the day, and many were counsel to their king. It may be serious work governing a country, but it's important to sit back and have a laugh. It keeps you sane.
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