Salon.com > Rally to Restore Sanity

Rachel Maddow’s must-see Jon Stewart interview

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 13:40:00 +0000

Ah, so that's what intelligent, reasonable discourse looks like. Haven't seen too much of it these days -- almost didn't recognize it. But on "Rachel Maddow" Thursday, professional "conflictonator" Jon Stewart went head to head with the MSNBC host, and the result was a dizzyingly terrific Rally to Restore Sanity built for two.

Maddow, clearly in defensive mode after Stewart's stinging rebuke to the round-the-clock news media at last month's ballyhooed get-together on the National Mall, came out swinging -- albeit respectfully -- at the "Daily Show" host, deflecting barbs against what he termed the network's "derogatory" attitudes toward political pot-stirrers. And Stewart, for his part, remained stubbornly on the ropes all evening, explaining his motivation for the Rally to Restore Sanity by declaring passionately, "In 12 years, I’d earned a moment to tell people who I was."

It was riveting, at times utterly thrilling stuff, with both sides gracefully doing the dance of abundant, obvious admiration while firmly maintaining their own convictions. This is what happens when people don't scream and hurl nonsense invective at each other. Watch and learn, America.

Why I didn’t boo Bush at the World Series

Tue, 02 Nov 2010 00:20:00 +0000

My most vivid early baseball memory is sitting high in the grandstands at Shea Stadium in New York, on Roberto Clemente Night, where it seemed like we were about the only white people around (but I'm probably misremembering). There were a lot of Latin men, for sure, and very few women, but there we were, my little brother and I, with our mother and grandmother, passionate fans of the Mets (and bereft Brooklyn Dodgers lovers). Clemente played for the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates, but my mother was worldly enough about life and baseball to know that the Puerto Rican outfielder was a hero to Latin New Yorkers; as a Jackie Robinson fan, she knew the way baseball could heal the world a little bit, game by game, team by team. So within a few innings we Mets fans were chanting, "Viva Roberto Clemente!" Mom was breaking out her high school Spanish, and the men were courtly and warm and protective, sharing their peanuts and making sure my grandmother could get down the long, steep aisle from the top of Shea. Looking back, it was my first experience of being "the other," a minority in someone else's culture, and it was great. I was respectful, I was treated warmly, I felt little strangeness, no fear.

Jon Stewart’s media critique annoys the media

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 17:15:00 +0000

Was Jon Stewart's media critique at this weekend's "Rally to Restore Sanity" a searing indictment of a broken institution? Did his desire to be "fair" make his sermon into an inaccurate "pox on both houses" attack on both shameless propagandists and passionate liberals? Does the media actually not matter that much? Judging by the reaction of media people, the answer to all of those questions is "yes."

It's worth noting, first of all, that the soul-deadening cynicism of your average political reporter makes them appreciate Jon Stewart's comedy but find his earnestness alien and stupid. That's your explanation for half the media response right there. But Stewart annoyed some sincere partisans as much as the hacks.

While the rally was still happening, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann was criticizing the message on Twitter. Olbermann took Stewart to be arguing that liberals (the ones who watch Stewart) should calm down and stop shouting, which would be a preemptive surrender to still-shouting Republicans.

I rode the Huffington Post Sanity bus

Sun, 31 Oct 2010 15:01:00 +0000

I woke up wanting to smash my iPod. It was 3:50 a.m. and the iPod was playing an ersatz marimba, the first of the four alarms I set to ensure I made it to the far side of Queens to catch the Huffington Post-sponsored bus to the Rally to Restore Sanity in D.C.

Staring at my bleary reflection in the mirror, it was hard to remember why I had signed up for this. My friend Bobby had bailed on the trip the night before. Part of my Halloween costume – "regrettable tattoos" drawn on in Sharpie – had smeared onto my chin. And while the 99-cent pizza place across the street had a line down the block, there was nowhere to get coffee.

This sucks, I thought.

It all began, of course, when Arianna Huffington appeared on "The Daily Show" last month and announced, apparently on impulse, that the Huffington Post was giving away free rides to the Comedy Central-sponsored rally. "Just come to the Huffingtonne Post, 560 Broadway in SoHo. The bahss will be there. We'll take you with us," she said regally, beckoning to the audience. "We have as many bahsses as there are people to fill them." HuffPo staff heard about the gesture at approximately the same time as the rest of us. ("Arianna's $250K Bus to Jon Stewart Rally a 'Shock' at HuffPo HQ," read a headline at The Wrap.)

The clumsy, beautiful Rally to Restore Sanity

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:31:00 +0000

It wasn't the 1963 March on Washington. Or Woodstock. Or even, thank God, a gathering of Glenn Beck fans. It was a frequently haphazard stage production featuring two comedians, a few musicians and, at various points, Father Guido Sarduccci and R2D2. It was not the beginning of a new political movement or a show of strength for an existing unified cause. Yet in the end, it was just what America needed.

On a flawless autumn afternoon at the nation's capitol, a crowd that "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart fancifully referred to as "10 million" strong came together to declare their allegiance to one nation under reason, good manners, respectful disagreement. What they -- and we the viewers at home -- got was an odd mix of Comedy Central fake news shenanigans and deeply passionate rhetoric. It didn't always work perfectly, but then, the American dream rarely does.

Ever since the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear was announced in September, plenty of people have been mulling what the heck such an event would entail and what it could hope to accomplish. Along the way, many have wondered if Stewart, Colbert and the whole caboodle have essentially jumped the shark.

The Rally to Restore Sanity: Nonpartisan, but political

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 21:01:00 +0000

Jon Stewart didn't lie. His "Rally to Restore Sanity" was aggressively non-partisan. But while none of the participants had anything to say about the upcoming midterm elections (besides a brief shout of "vote!" by American treasure and '60s civil rights marcher Tony Bennett), there was a quiet political message. And, honestly, it's a message that Democrats should be happy with.

An endorsement of civility and reason is basically an endorsement of Barack Obama. "Reason and civility" are practically the Democratic party's platform. The rally was a call to keep fighting for the things that make educated young liberals support Democrats in the first place.

The Republican midterm strategy is based on anger and resentment. A celebration of the idea that basically everyone's pretty OK at heart is a pretty liberal message. Some of the comedy (most of it involving Stephen Colbert) was explicitly against Republican midterm fear-mongering campaigns involving the demonization of Islam -- like bringing on Yusef Islam and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to drive home the apparently controversial point that Muslims are nice, pleasant people.

Thousands flood Rally for Sanity

Sat, 30 Oct 2010 18:02:00 +0000

A huge throng stretched along the National Mall on Saturday for a "sanity" rally blending laughs, activism and a call to civility from two improbable maestros of moderation, comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

The crowds were festive, goofy, disillusioned with the state of politics if not the nation, and ready to play nice at a gathering called to counter all the shouting and flying insults of these polarized times. So were the hosts.

Colbert arrived on stage like a rescued Chilean mine worker, in a capsule from a supposed underground bunker, after Stewart made a show of counting the crowd, tens of thousands strong, one by one.

For all the frivolity, there were political undertones, too, pushing back against conservatives ahead of Tuesday's election.

"I hate signs," said one sign. "Have you seen my keys?" said another.

Slogans urged people to "relax." But also: "Righties, don't stomp on my head," a reference to a Republican rally in Kentucky at which a liberal activist was pulled to the ground and stepped on. And, "I wouldn't care if the president was Muslim."

Can”Vote Sanity” stop the madness?

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 21:30:00 +0000

The secrecy surrounding the "Rally to Restore Sanity (or Fear)" leaves everything to the imagination until noon Saturday. Or almost everything besides the touted performances of John Legend and the Roots, Mavis Staples and Jeff Tweedy, and Sheryl Crow -- none of whom would be likely to headline a Glenn Beck or Tea Party rally. Hosts Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert can be expected to tweak Democrats as well as Republicans and to downplay their own political leanings. But if the satirists play true to the title of their event, what will they tell the hundreds of thousands trekking to Washington and the many thousands more watching the livecast? If the nation's sanity needs to be restored, will they hint who might be most responsible for driving America over the edge?

Neither Stewart nor Colbert is likely to exacerbate the risk they have taken by addressing such touchy questions directly. But some Democrats believe the "crazy" label will stick to Republican candidates, especially those associated with the Tea Party movement -- and that sanity versus its opposite may well be the most effective meme to sway independent and undecided voters during the final days of the campaign.