I had caught bits and pieces of the live feed of Restore Sanity and/or Fear Rally yesterday as well as short reviews of the event on both Twitter and the Blogosphere which were, of course, mixed. I think it turned out to be an event that many, including myself, didn’t expect it would be and I think that may have disappointed some people; that perhaps it wasn’t political enough; too light hearted. I think many expected and hoped it would directly counteract the Glenn Beck and Sa-wah Palin led tea-bagging hit parades that have hit recently; a rally for the left, which of course, this wasn’t; after listening to Jon Stewart’s speech and all, it was clear, that all were welcome at this event.
This brings me to the question; did the rally restore sanity? Did it achieve its’ goal? To answer that, let’s look at Stewart’s speech, clearly one the goals was, even if only temporarily, was to temporarily restore calm amidst a climate where protesters and dissenters are getting beaten up and/or falsely arrested, misinformation brainwashing the masses, pundits further dividing an already deeply polarized country (not for nothing many have nicknamed the US the “Excited” States these days) and a media ”amplifying” everything. Other goals were to promote compromise amongst Americans, to unite them in an afternoon of song, comedy and pep talks of hope, compromise and embracing their differences. With those goals in mind, yes, the rally, if only temporarily, did achieve its’ goals.
Contrary to Sa-wah Palin and Glenn Beck’s shindigs which are hyperpartisan and intended to further stoke fear, hatred and misinformation amongst the masses, this afternoon of entertainment, pep talk with positive messages to take home, and good ol’ fashioned light hearted non-partisan and (mostly) a-political fun did indeed provide a sharp contrast to the Palin-Beck tea-bagging hit parade. The goal was not to be too controversial; that would be too intimidating in a climate of fear. The idea was to make as less intimidating as possible.
Did Stewart change the face of the country, well of course not. At this point, I don’t think that is possible, and I think everyone who attended the rally and even Jon Stewart is realistic enough to realize that as of today, just two days before the mid-term elections, which promises to be nothing short of a three ring circus (to put it mildly) with the violence surrounding these elections, to know that none of that has changed and in fact, things can and probably will get worse and will continue to do so long after the election is over, regardless of the results, but for one afternoon, he got thousands and thousands of people to get together to listen to his message of compromise and hope. Maybe even got through to some of the audience and those who followed the live feed on line. Gotta start somewhere.
As Stewart said at the end of his speech:
Sanity will always be and has always been in the eye of the beholder. To see you here today and the kind of people that you are has restored mine.
Indeed.
Another thing, honestly, if this rally had been a politically motivated partisan protest event, perhaps it wouldn’t have been as successful as while it can be a useful tool, it isn’t as original, and at the end of the day, still would be more partisanship that continues to the split the country, when the goal is to attempt to bring the country together even if only for a few hours.
In short, this event was not about the right v left or tea-baggers v liberals; it was not even about conversion of the far right tea-party types; it was about promoting an attempt at compromise and finding some common ground; a definite contrast to the Fox News Machine and Glenn Beck hootenannies. Will or can that be accomplished? Sadly, probably not in the near future, but nothing ventured, nothing gained, right? It was about trying to unify a deeply polarized country in a least intimidating and a most fun and entertaining manner possible.
And who said the Jon Stewart didn’t bring some controversy to the rally? He brought Yussuf AKA Cat Stevens in to perform a fun musical comedy sketch with Ozzy Osbourne and The OJs.
