NewsTaco’s Rally to Restore Sanity Coverage
WASHINGTON — The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear drew hundreds of thousands of fake news devotees to the nation’s capital Saturday. They came from all corners of the nation — including Alaska— and even places like Canada and Mexico. While officials no longer give out crowd estimates for such events, Jon Stewart, with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek, estimated the audience at between 10 million and 6 billion people.
The throngs overwhelmed the city’s public transportation system, with many people giving up after three-hour waits at outlying Metro stations. Metro officials reported almost half a million people rode the trains Saturday. A typical Saturday sees about 180,000 use the trains.
Those who did make it in were packed onto the National Mall and more than a dozen side streets. And while many in attendance couldn’t see the stage or hear headliners Stewart and Stephen Colbert, they made up for it with dozens of impromptu mini rallies.
On the stage, Stewart, Colbert and a guests ranging from former basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, to Star Wars robot R2D2 entertained those within earshot with a combination of stand-up comedy, faux debating and their trademark use of news clip montages. Musical guests included Ozzy Osborne, Tony Bennett, Kid Rock, Sheryl Crow and Mavis Staples. Yusuf Islam (a.k.a. Cat Stevens) also performed and Father Guido Sarducci of Saturday Night Live fame gave the benediction. The stage was lined with American flags and the show opened with the national anthem and closed with Bennett singing “America The Beautiful.”
But for more than half the people gathered, the stage and acts were too distant to see or hear. In clearings and on the granite steps and promenades of museums and federal buildings, costumed and sign-toting college kids entertained themselves and groups of older adults with jokes, chants and mostly good-natured banter.
Latinos made up a good portion of the crowds.
Many of the signs poked fun at the Tea Party and its supporters. Fox News personality Glenn Beck, who held his own rally on the Mall earlier this year, also was the subject of much banner ridicule. Some real Tea Party supporters were in town, including one woman who wore a shirt reading: “We didn’t bring our guns…This time.” Her golden retriever was wearing a Tea Puppy shirt. She endured some taunts from the crowd.
But satire ruled the day. One African-American man held a sign calling for the repeal of the Civil Rights Act. “I miss sitting in the back of the bus,” it said. Another sign said: “Stop Plate Tectonics.” A sign with pictures of Hitler, Stalin and Obama bore the caption, Nazi, Communist and Hawaiian. On one street, a man dressed as a banana chatted with Napoleon as a dozen people dressed as tea bags strolled by.
Large numbers of seniors also were in attendance, including many in wheelchairs.
Restaurants in the area also were overwhelmed, with many posting signs announcing they’d run out of food. Folks with causes took advantage of the captive audience to hand out flyers. Among them were calls to engage in veganism and “stop the insanity of oil drilling.”
Boulevards and Metro stations remained jammed for hours after the event. And even though it wasn’t addressed officially during the rally, many conversations on the trains leaving area focused on Tuesday’s midterm elections. One family leaving the area said they were Tea Party supporters who were caught up in the rally when they went to scope out the course for today’s running of the Marine Corps Marathon.
“There were a lot of weirdos out there,” said the man, who described himself as a former Marine and business owner. That led to discussion on the subway platform with a young man who described himself as a college student from Wisconsin, he said that, while much of the show was silly and fun, he was moved by Stewart’s closing monologue and wished all Americans would listen.
Stewart closed the show with an impassioned plea that took politicians and the media to task for the way issues and stories are framed and handled:
“The press is our immune system. If it overreacts to everything we eventually get sicker. And perhaps eczema. Yet, with that being said, I feel good. Strangely, calmly good, because the image of Americans that is reflected back to us by our political and media process is false. It is us through a funhouse mirror, and not the good kind that makes you slim and taller — but the kind where you have a giant forehead and an ass like a pumpkin and one eyeball.”
David Lauricella is an editor living in Rockville, Md. He attended the event with his 70-ish parents, who drove 985 miles from Jacksonville, Fla. for the rally.
