So, in case you missed it – and if you read this week’s splendid Joke Revue, you didn’t – Jon Stewart (of The Daily Show) and Stephen Colbert (of the Colbert Report) are holding dueling rallies on Oct. 30 in Washington. The two announcements are very funny, and well worth watching:
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Anyway, this all sounded like a good excuse to take a trip down to DC. So who’s in? If there’s enough interest, should we charter a BMG plane or something? 😀
Please share widely!
I’m all for the conflation of politics and comedy and the ‘restoration of sanity’, but I think there’s a little thing called an election a few days after the rally.
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p>This is why the Tea Partiers have their parties in the summer, so they can be door knocking and phone calling the weekend before an election.
if a liberal group could figure out how to get down there and get these folks to make calls. Deval Patrick did it at the Boston Common once… there was a rally, and volunteers approached people and asked them to make five phone calls from the list, right then and there. It was really clever.
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p>So, what if they did the same thing, somehow breaking out for different states (I’d focus on states within 400 miles of DC)? I feel like the folks who watch the show and will attend skew young and liberal, and it’d be a shame to let that energy go to waste.
Although this isn’t an explicitly partisan rally per se, if this rally is reasonably successful it will presumably have an effect of being advertising for the Democratic Party. And in so far as that is true, you want the rally held as close to the election as possible. When tea partiers hold their rally, the effect is that the news media talks about it for a while, and your average low-information voter barely pays attention and then completely forgets by election. (Which might not be a bad strategy for the tea party, since they aren’t super-popular, so rallying the base is really all you want out of those sorts of things.)
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p>Plus, it’s not like you can’t do phone calling from your hotel room. Organizing for America (and maybe specific campaigns) have plenty of call-from-home services.
with a friend and my 13-year-old son. We are leaving, however, from New York City as we’ll (all) be there for a poetry forum/conference on Thursday and Friday. This thing is going to be so much fun; I can’t wait.
One Nation Working Together is marching on Washington next Saturday. Website here.
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p>The Coalition for Social Justice out of the Fall River, New Bedford, Brockton area is attending. Stomv, I think this is likely one of the groups with the cellphone strategy you describe.
I love a laff. Stewart and Colbert are clever fellows.
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p>But there is something a little “fiddle while Rome burns” in all this. Are we taking them seriously, or just slyly pretending to do so? Are the only valid political rallies suddenly the ironic, postmodern ones?
“ironic, postmodern” rallies? Can you elaborate, as I’m not sure what other rallies you are alluding to.
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p>I object, as well, to the “fiddle while Rome burns” suggestion. I’m a serious person. I do my part in my community and for the Democratic party. I suspect a fair percentage of the people who watch Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are much better informed politically than your average bear, too, and are likely to be quite active themselves. I also suspect that if these same political people are angry and frustrated enough to travel a great distance to make a political point, I don’t think that’s worthless or self-indulgent.
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p>The people I know who are going are serious–some are office holders (like me) and some are simply way more informed about important political, social, and economic issues than I’ll ever be and participate in their own ways.
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p>This isn’t about being clever, really. This isn’t all about getting a “laff,” either. You may not get much sustenance out of Stewart or Colbert, but a lot of people who watch faithfully and “get it” do. They are the ones who are most likely to be at the rally, and that’s nothing to dismiss.
are the two called by Stewart and Colbert. Aren’t they? Not much of a history, it’s something new.
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p>These two are more than “just” comedians to be sure. They are pointed satirists filling a huge gaping void admirably well. May they point and prosper.
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p>Activists are entitled who whatever recreations they can get. Have a blast, and I mean that with no irony at all.
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p>So I plead guilty to this. These days I am challenged by both time and money. For me, schlepping to DC for any of these events is proving to be too much (though my family had seriously discussed going for October 2).
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p>The idea of going to a faux rally so far away, instead of the real one the week before, is just hard to get my head around. And
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p>Can you explain what that point is?
as an English teacher type, so I do appreciate the reference.
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p>I’m not an expert, so please don’t take what I say here as authoritative in any sense. Re explaining the point: I guess I’d say this thing is a “refudiation” of the Beck, Palin mentality in terms that low-information voters and the headline mentality understand and the rest of us appreciate. I’ve no illusions that this rally will be covered by the media, let alone Fox, but to the extent that reasonable people get a sense that over 150,000 people can gather on the mall to say: a) I value reasoned discourse, b) I value civility, c) if we disagree, that does not make you or me Hitler, d) I do not believe this nations is entirely comprised of Palins and Becks, 5) that truth is not found on any of the cable news stations, and 6) I am not manipulated by fear mongering.
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p>Here’s what I believe. Over 150,000 people will go home and vote. They will vote against Fox, tea partiers, fear, and illogic. They will go home feeling better about who they are, and they might even feel validated. Now small thing, that.
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p>It’s easy to mock this, but here’s what I would urge you to consider. Jon Stewart is one of the most trusted “news” personalities in the nation. This is an entirely new approach in appealing to the masses. This isn’t a gag; this is more like Stewart’s incendiary appearance on Crossfire writ large. I’m very hopeful we can laugh, however, because, candidly, I’m tired and worn out. This nation is lost and more likely to remain that way now, post Obama’s election, than we were before. We have seen how ineffectual Democrats are and how extreme Republicans can be. I am disheartened and enervated. I suspect there will be a lot of people down there just like me. I am hopeful we’ll derive some common comfort and head on home when it’s all over and do what we need to do for Tuesday with a little more energy than we had before.
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p>yes
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p>no
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p>Anecdotally, my cohorts (well educated 30 somethings) watch Colbert and Stewart and know what’s going on on a national sense, and tend to be liberal. However, few of them could name their own state rep or state senator, or access any local news — they don’t watch local news, read the Globe or a local weekly, and since few have kids in the schools, aren’t particularly tied in to their neighborhood community.
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p>Many vote exactly once every four years. Some even vote in POTUS primaries and/or Nov 4k+2 elections. Very few of ’em know anything about a vote for Treasurer or Auditor or Ballot questions 1/2/3. All know about California’s Prop 8.
Rational people who perform some sensible triage on the demands on their own time and energy.
and, as a campaign junkie, I’d point out that we campaign workers are generally not rational people; we don’t perform sensible triage on the demands of our own time and energy.
…the right position is not necessarily the sensible one.
I think we are blessed to have their smart, funny commentary. And I’m sure this is going to be a great event. But I have one problem. I’m not entirely on board with restoring sanity (although I do want a t-shirt that says “I disagree with you but I’m pretty sure you’re not Hitler.”) I’m mad as hell and I’m tired of a well-funded right wing getting all the attention and publicity. So I feel I can’t go to this rally with a good attitude.
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p>Plus I’m going to be working my butt off for Patrick.
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p>Here you go.
In Boston, I would be there for sure. Can’t travel to DC right now. Too long for a day trip and can’t pay to stay overnight.
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p>I hope there is live web coverage. These two guys are extremely popular.
…because I happen to be scheduled to come back from Florida at that time, but I’d have been sorely tempted to get there anyway.
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p>I went to a few of the anti-war marches a few years back, and was blown away by the vast numbers of people who showed up but got NO (that’s nada, zilch, zer0) attention from the media. I don’t think that’s going to happen this time. I think that’s probably why Stewart and Colbert have decided to do this. I think it will get lots of coverage at a very important time, and I’d like to be a part of that.
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p>And, yes, I’ll be happy to make GOTV calls from DC!