The Rally to Restore Sanity
Written Oct 29th, 2010, before The Rally to Restore Sanity:
Jon Stewart has nicknamed his Rally to Restore Sanity “The Million Moderate March”. But that isn’t what the rally really is about. It’s not about moderates, liberals, or conservatives. It’s about people who can prevent fact based issues a reality based argument, and not end up hating or dismissing arguments other who disagree with them make. That is exactly what Stewart promotes with his sign idea, “I may disagree with you, but I’m pretty sure you’re not Hitler.”
Written Nov 1st, 2010 (A video of the rally will is forthcoming.)
The day of the event was many things and amounted to little. Many of the people who went to the rally could not hear, let alone see, the proceedings. I arrived late, missed Ozzie Osbourne and Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Steven) singing together, and missed some of the early shtick. I was there in time to hear Stewart sing, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar get a standing ovation. Yes, there was nowhere to sit, but Kareem would have gotten a standing ovation if there were seats.
The part of the show I saw wasn’t any funnier than nightly shows of Stewart of Colbert, but the audience with their signs and costumes was spectacular. But the show and the rhetoric? Eh. The lead up to the rally sold his message of bringing back civil debate as much as the rally itself did. One thing to add: The message must have gotten through. With all the jostling and pushing and shoving on the Metro and at the show, I didn’t see on instance of an altercation. People really were there to get along, and I give Stewart and the audience credit for being calm and easy-going.
However, Stewart’s message fell pray to his desire to be far and balance, as opposed to Fox News. Part of the closing address to the crowd was spent on Stewart calling on the cable news media and politicians to ratchet down their partisanship on the left and on the right. He spoke as if the shouting of Keith Olbermann (which is annoying) is equivalent to Sharon Angle’s calling for a “Second Amendment Solution”. That is ridiculous, and to quote Angle, “If this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are going to start looking for second amendment remedies…The first thing we need to do is take Harry Reid out.” http://crooksandliars.com/karoli/sharron-angles-solution-broken-congress-arm
To compare Olbermann calling Limbaugh “fat” to a Republican comparing being gay to alcoholism is silly. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/10/buck-compares-gay-alcoholism/ While Mr. Stewart has it right, Olbermann is guilty of name calling, he equate signs with Obama as Hitler, Stalin or a witch doctor to Bill Maher calling Delaware Senatorial candidate Christine O’Donnell an idiot. Is it regrettable? Sure. Is calling a woman who is NOT even a Senator “stupid” the same as calling the sitting president a “Nazi”? No way in hell. Stewart is just being a middle of the road namby-pamby left of center douchbag a-hole attention whore looking for the affection his dad held back if he thinks insults on the left are the same as threats on the right, so there Mr. Stewart. As you going to go after Tex Shelters now? I didn’t think so, ya coward.
Back on a serious note. I am glad Stewart had the rally. He is able to do this because his network is not pretending to be a “news” organization, and he is generally correct that the issues have been lost in all the paid advertizing and so-called punditry that is more often then not gripe sessions and “gotcha” moments. However, the actual “radical left” is not only miniscule in scope, less publically visible (not having their own network), but they are also more fact-based than the radical right. The “far left”, whatever that means, is also not dependent on the Democratic Party and have abandoned them almost completely, and the radical right have nearly taken over the Republican Party. And while I disagree with his comparing the “radical left” to the “radical right”, I am pretty sure Stewart’s not Hitler.
Yours,
Tex Shelters
Tex Shelters Online 
I’ll watch the video. It’s natural that nothing can live up to that level of promise, hell, even the taste of bread doesn’t live up to the taste of bread baking. It sounds as if it ended up a glorified Jon Stewart show, only a lot more inconvenient and uncomfortable.
Good for you for going. I’m glad I’m going to get to see some of it – seated, comfortable, with no one to block my view and with no one sneezing out happy little flu bugs. And with a bowl of popcorn if I want it.
Leeza,
You missed the flu bugs, sure, but you also missed the spectacle and the crowds and the people. You will see what I mean from the video.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
Hitler has left the building.
Let’s hope people stop comparing ANYONE to Hitler, Leeza. I went to the Holocaust Museum the next day, and they have this great exhibit on Nazi Propaganda. I am sure you can check some of it out online.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
“not having their own network”
It’s all in the eye of the beholder Tex. From these eyes I see MSNBC as a Leftist/Progressive Network. I agree Fox is far right during Prime Time but at least Fox tries to have regular News with Special Report with Bret Baier and Fox Report with Shepard Smith who btw way is left of center. MSNBC has made a decision not to have any news between 5-7 pm Central just progressive opinion with The Ed Show and Hardball with Chris Matthews.
BTW, I hope you have a nice election day Tex, I’m sure I will and for the rest of you there is but one thing left to do.
Just Shut Up and Vote. If you don’t care enough to vote than you surely don’t care enough to have an opinion let alone go to the trouble of voicing it.
Jake,
Chris Mathews is NOT a liberal, by the way. Certainly, Ed Schultz IS the most progressive regular TV personality. And also on MSNBC you have Dylan Ratigan, Morning Joe, are moderate to conservative shows. And more to my point, while Olbermann is a loudmouthed ass, he has yet to call some one Hitler, just compared some of the tactics such as stomping on MoveOn members as fascistic. At least he usually backs up his ranting with some facts and doesn’t pull it out of thin Air.
Maddow does amazingly well without the name calling. Yes, she’s progressive, but she’s not a ranting hate machine.
Shut up and vote, sure.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
Howdy Tex,
Matthews may not be a liberal by your standards, but he is a hard core partisan. I watch both MSNBC and Fox in “prime time” from time to time and both channels feature hard core partisan pundits. I cannot seem to sit through an entire hour of either Hannity or Olberman. I find both of them extremely repugnant. I do have to offer props to Fox for at least attempting objectivity by offering the opinions of guests and contributors from the other side of the isle, although they are often ridiculed and talked over. MSNBC seems to believe that opposing view points are all together useless to their viewers as evidenced by their exclusively left wing lineup on election night. All in all I think both channels do a fine job of preaching to their respective choirs. True balance and objective journalism is obviously not their goal in prime time.
I do have to give MSNBC kudos for Morning Joe. IMO, that program deserves an Emmy for offering viewers balanced civil debate on the pressing issues of the day. Very refreshing.
Dan,
I am not sure what “balance” would mean politically.
You are right, Matthews is a true blue Democrat, but you are coming from the false assumption that the Democratic party is “liberal”. It’s left of center, perhaps, but it’s not that progressive even if the only Congressional progressives are Democrats.
If they were progressive, they would have:
1. Tried to pass single payer health care.
2. Been done with DADT
3. Closed GITMO
4. Ended the Wars, or at least tried
5. Spent more on jobs programs and less on protecting Wall Street.
6. Tried to pass the Employee Free Choice Act instead of tabling it.
7. Brought back the Clinton tax rates that were still lower than Eisenhower’s and the first two years under Reagan.
8. Etc.
Those are progressive agenda items, and few Democrats fight for those, certainly not Obama. And only Ed Schultz pushing them consistently, although Maddow and Olbermann do talk about those thing. Mostly though, Olbermann is about debunking the Republicans. At least Schultz has the guts to promote his agenda and not just attack Republicans.
I don’t think Fox really tries to be objective with their supposed liberals they put on. It rarely happens and on Beck and others, they never have “liberals” on.
As for myself, I really like Lawrence O’Donnell, and not just cause he’s Irish. And Ratigan aint bad either.
Thanks! I will post my video of the rally soon.
Peace,
Tex Shelters
Howdy Tex,
I watched the entire rally on Comedy Central Saturday. I thought that it was great! The music kicked ass and Stewart and Colbert were both funny and serious in a very thoughtful manner. Their message truly resonated with me and I was truly touched by the event. I only wish I could have been there in person to experience the crowd. I think I would have fit right in. Maybe next time if there is a next time, who knows.
GD
I will post a video of the crowd today.
Thanks!
Peace,
Tex Shelters