Deana Schupp, a cable company worker from Florida, stared out over the huge crowd on Washington DC’s National Mall and had a sudden but welcome realisation. “When I see this crowd, I feel I am not alone. We are here for sanity and there are a lot of us,” she said. It was, she admitted, her first protest march.
She definitely had company. Tens of thousands of people gathered here in what must surely be the strangest-titled mass protest ever held in America’s capital: The Rally To Restore Sanity And/Or Hope.
[…]
The crowd was enormous – easily a quarter of a million people. As the masses listened to music and comedy routines broadcast from the tiny distant stage over giant screens all the way down the Mall, it was an impressive display of the power of comedy and celebrity. Whether it was a display of the power of American liberalism was much harder to say. Many observers saw the rally as a response to Fox News pundit Glenn Beck’s recent “Restoring Honour” rally, which occupied the same space several months ago. That event, which attracted between 250,000 and 500,000 people, was seen as symbolising the rising power of conservatism.
The sheeple respond much better to fear – ask the Karl Rove.
Fear (safety) ranks near the base of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.
On comedy central in living HD.
Looks like a modest number of people enjoying a nice fall day and some free music.
Of course this is DC. There might have been almost that many people there minus the free music and the event nor is it exactly clear to me that a rally for sanity is going to rally people to vote for an EU style nanny state congress and Fed.Gov.
A majority of Americans don’t consider those to be all that sane.
Addendum: Maybe there was bigger crowd at some other location than the one shown?
Gee,I’m sorry I missed such a “Historic Rally”,but I had to wash my hair. If I was there I could have pushed the attendance into the dozens. Damn.
I’m sure Fox news will claim there were only 5 people there and MSNBC will claim there were 15 billion.
Fortunately, on Nov 2nd, we will restore sanity and banish fear.
#7
Where? Not the US. Voting won’t stop insanity nor fear. I will just put into power more people that either accept insanity and/or fear or will promote it.
Cursor_
Wow, a political party!
I never went to any of the rallies in DC, but if they have more like this with a humorous all-inclusive slant and actual fun music and stuff, I might even consider going.
I thought it was good. The crowds looked pretty huge.
Mavis Staples rules.
As headlined on Drudge: Send In The Clowns
And to heighten the hypocrisy of the “non-political” event, Comedy Central tried to strictly prohibit filming of the rally.
As long as we have only have two major political parties the insanity will continue since they are both worthless!
I wonder why sanity is considered a liberal position?
If people thought this was a liberal party fest, then clearly they haven’t seen the event at all. It was more like a musical concert (great line ups by the way) with some segments of humor here and there, and a nice little speech at the end by Jon.
I expected more comedy acts, but gosh, there were a LOT of people in the Rally.
Also, I am thankful that Comedy Central (via Akamai) streamed the event internationally without region restrictions on the web.
#14. and cleanliness is republican?
“Good Though!!”
I’m gad no one got hurt and people for the most part were not being douchey.
Wish I could say the same for some of the posters here.
Us fans liked it those who don’t care for Stewart and Colbert probably didn’t.
I’m a Gay Islamic Mexican Athletic Black Woman with the high paying job you should have.
FEAR ME
#14 “I wonder why sanity is considered a liberal position?”
It’s not, it’s an elusive liberal goal.
What I saw of the first hour of the rally looked like a gathering of moderates (not liberals and conservatives) with intelligence and a sense of humor.
This is a Good Thing (TM). May the moderate middle win!
Tell you what, I would much rather belong with the crowd that put up today’s party than the “Live in Fear, let government become your nanny” party that Glenn “the crying clown” Beck put on last month.
One is about having the government helping it’s citizens life a better and more free life, the other bout controlling it’s citizens via corporate slavery… which one would you choose?
Alfred, find some sense.
I think we can judge the rally’s success by the fact that there are just 24 comments about it here on Dvorak hours after it ended. In other words, it’s changed nothing.
It looks like they were allowed to bring signs.
So, directing a comedy show and rally to platform your views is not political? That’s taking it down a notch? Check. As Stewart himself suggested, why should we take him seriously? After all, he used to be on after Muppets. I like Jon Stewart as comedian and I’m all for making fun of politicians, but I often find him hypocritical of his own “apolitical” views.
So were the people cheering for the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens with knowledge that he wanted Salman Rushdie killed, or were they ignorant of that fact before they invited him?
Could be that deowll has never left our august shores to determine what life’s like in a liberal democracy. Can we pass the hat now so he can look for those nannys in Europe?
Alfred,
I’m curious. What gives you the idea I am part of the “establishment press”? The closest I’ve ever gotten to journalism is reading newspapers.
There are mixed numbers, but I am confident that over 200,000 showed up based on various data by CBS News and other places.
34 Uncle Dave
You’re feeding the troll!
Alfred’s “logic” goes like this:
Make a false / invalid claim.
Refutation with proof provided.
Attack proof provider with strawmen / ad hominem arguments.
Proof given again.
Quote God / scripture.
Rinse and repeat.
I envision him screaming at televisions and when they cut to commercial he declares victory.