Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have no greater fan than me. Maybe if I'd made the trek to Washington for their rally, the sheer fellowship of the party would have given me a different view of the event…but on my TiVo at home, it seemed like a 3-hour bore. The musical acts were nice but I wonder how many of those who did show up were there for The Roots and Sheryl Crow, and how many were expecting something on the order of The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. The segments where Jon and Stephen held stage struck me as so eager to not offend anyone or seem political that they were without a lot of point…up until the end when Stewart made his little plea for sanity and cooperation in the nation. It was eloquent and funny and very, very sane…but even there, if he said anything that anyone who wasn't in the cable news business could disagree with or anything that would encourage any kind of change anywhere, I missed it.
In interviews preceding the rally, Stewart seemed oddly unable to articulate just what its purpose was. From that, I may have guessed wrongly that he knew but didn't want to say, lest he provide ammo for those eager to shoot back at him. Once I saw the rally, I started to think that maybe he didn't have much of a purpose other than to show you can fill the National Mall with people who aren't there because they think the end is nigh. Then again, maybe some of the people who did make the trek went because they're terrified of the kind of people who showed up to hear Glenn Beck.
Getting back to his end speech, which I've embedded below: I was kinda hoping/expecting he'd button it with something about how fear drives out sanity; how the folks in our nation who are most apt to be spreading anger are the ones who are most afraid. Either that or they just see the dollar signs and empowerment that come from exploiting and fanning the anger of those who are afraid. It seemed like that was where he was headed…and maybe he just thought it was too obvious a point to make. Instead, he showed us cars trying to navigate an awkward merger of lanes on a thoroughfare and he said…
Every one of the cars that you see is filled with individuals of strong belief, and principles they hold dear — often principles and beliefs in direct opposition to their fellow travelers'. And yet, these millions of cars must somehow find a way to squeeze, one by one, into a mile-long, 30-foot-wide tunnel, carved underneath a mighty river. And they do it, concession by concession: you go, then I'll go. You go, then I'll go. You go, then I'll go. "Oh, my God — is that an NRA sticker on your car?" "Is that an Obama sticker on your car?" It's okay — you go, then I go.
And sure, at some point, there will be a selfish jerk who zips up the shoulder, and cuts in at the last minute. But that individual is rare, and he is scorned, and he is not hired as an analyst!
That's a good line but I'm not sure I buy it as a working analogy. I don't think that individual is scorned. I think on Tuesday, some of those individuals are going to get elected…and their main selling point is that they don't make concessions. John Boehner is playing to his kind of voter when in speaking of the Obama agenda, he promises, "We're going to do everything