Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and / or Fear” brought over 250,000 people from all over American to the National Mall in Washington yesterday.
The comedians blamed the press and politicians for creating a political atmosphere defined by extremist rhetoric.
Stewart told the crowd “The image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false…We work together to get things done every damn day.”
He said “I can't control what people think this was, I can only tell you my intentions," Stewart said. "This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith, or people of activism, or to look down at the heartland, or passionate argument, or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear.
"They are and we do. But we live in hard times, not end times, and we can have animus and not be enemies."
Along with the messages from the comedy mock-rivals there were live performances from artists such as Ozzy Osborne, Yusuf Islam, Sheryl Crow, The Roots, Mavis Staples, Kid Rock, Tony Bennett and Jeff Tweedy of the band Wilco.
Although no politician’s were invited and no partisan comments were passed the attendees at the rally appeared to favor the left-leaning Democratic Party. The message of the day was to ban political extremes.
For Stephen Colbert’s part, he stayed in character through out with his “March to Keep Fear Alive.” He whipped the crowd into a frenzy as he arrived on stage in a replica of the Chilean miner’s rescue pod dressed as a superhero.
It was clear that Stewart reasonableness won out off Colbert’s attempts to incite panic and sanity prevailed.
The original idea for the rally was to mock Glenn Beck’s “Rally to Restore Honor,” which took place in the same venue in August, however yesterday the rally turned into a national and sober call for civility.
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