Quotidian Dissent

Stewart Turns ‘em Out, But Can’t Turn It Up

Ladies and gentlemen, the numbers are in and it’s official: Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert outdid Glenn Beck nearly three times over. According to CBS News, the only organization doing a systematic count, some 215,000 people armed with signs, costumes, and a whole lot of sanity showed up to the Comedy Central-sponsored rally on Saturday, as compared to only 87,000 for Beck in his August rally.

For the millions who tuned in to C-Span, news shows, or the live internet stream, the rally’s comedic appeals and musical performances were surely entertaining, perhaps even thought-provoking. But many of the die-hard fans who made the journey to the nation’s capital had no such luck. Standing among the huddled masses, they couldn’t hear or see a thing.

Perhaps because they are inexperienced rally organizers, or perhaps because they were far too modest in projecting turnout, Comedy Central failed to set up jumbo-tron screens and speakers along the national mall. The inadequate electronics surrounding the stage were visible and audible to only a small percentage of the crowd. Flustered participants chanted “Louder, Louder!” and “Turn it up!” to no avail. Without a view of the stage or a way to hear the speeches, many retreated to nearby bars and coffee shops instead.

“I couldn’t see or hear anything,” said Ellen Roche, a 26-year-old DC resident who ended up watching the rally from a coffee shop. ”It didn’t seem like it was very well planned.”

Despite lacking access to the planned stage antics, participants found a worthy focus within the crowd itself. Aside from its awesome size, the assembly was punctuated with costumes (thanks to the rally falling on Halloween weekend) and saturated with clever, sarcastic, and witty signs satirizing political sloganeering. For weeks, the Daily Show and Colbert Report encouraged people to prepare, photograph, and share their Sanity/Fear signs. One man held high a yellow poster reading “My Arms Are Tired.” Another said, “I’m mad as hell, but mostly in a passive aggressive way.” Nearby, a colorful sign read “God Hates These Signs.”

While the majority of the signs were playful, befitting the rally’s spirit, a significant minority were pointedly aimed at denouncing the Tea Party. ”Don’t Tea On My Leg And Tell Me It’s Raining,’ read one. Another, set by a trash can, advertised the receptacle as a place to recycle Tea Bags. Parodying the seemingly endless comparisons of politicians to Hitler, one sign painted a somewhat less inflammatory mustache on Sarah Palin’s visage: That of Groucho Marx.

Ironically, a handful of people toted incendiary political signs, seemingly missing the rally’s message of moderation. One woman dressed in a devil costume brought a poster depicting former Vice President Dick Cheney burning in Hell.

While many of the people present were, strangely, the last to learn what happened on the rally’s central stage, they at least enjoyed taking part in an event intended to be equally entertaining and political. To these parody activists and zealots of moderation, outshining Glenn Beck was itself a statement worth making. But when it comes to the technical stuff, Comedy Central could learn a thing or two from Fox News.

-Niv Elis

Tags: Jon Stewart Stephen Colbert Rally Fear Sanity Protest DC Speakers Technical Difficulties Glenn Beck

Rally? What Rally?

Context is everything.

Normally, tens of thousands of citizens gathering in the nation’s capital would be considered a victorious display of strength. But in the wake of the recent Glenn Beck Rally and Tea Parties in Washington, the union-organized One Nation Working Together rally seemed woefully under-attended. Intended to demonstrate that the American left is still alive and kicking, the rally instead landed with a muffled thud on the national mall.

Whereas Beck attracted throngs of people impassioned by fiery rhetoric, big names, and audacious theatricality, One Nation’s response seemed merely a blip. The mall’s spacious lawns displayed their full greenery, having recovered from some serious Tea Party treading just weeks before. DC residents confronted with activists en route to the Lincoln Memorial quizzically muttered, “Rally? What Rally?”

The unions’ inability to produce the hype or headlines already surrounding the forthcoming Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert rallies uncomfortably belied the event. Were the obvious comparison points absent, and had the organizers not been such powerful national groups, the thousands of assembled marchers would have been impressive.

“I’m not a very big proponent of ordinary marches like this, so I’m just gonna put that right out there,” says Nadine Bloch, who works for the Washington Peace Center. Instead, Bloch believes in using creative forms of resistance, cultural work, and direct action. Towering over her, a 12-foot paper mache “Goddess of Peace and Liberation” demonstrates her views. Covered with slogans such as “Fund Jobs, Not War” and “Build Schools, Not Bombs,” the Goddess is the creation of a consortium of social justice movements called The Peace Table. “Marches are important for bringing communities together, showing strength to each other, perhaps sending a message to the White House, if you get really lucky. So we’re here just to add color and creative expression.”

Close by, dressed in a snazzy suit and smoking a pretzel cigar, Harold Gotbucks III of the Buffalo Billionaires flashes a winning smile. “The Billionaires decided we need to come down here and counteract these proletarian working people, running around and causing trouble,” he explains. “They should just shut up and stop complaining!” The satirical character is in reality Eric Gallion, a part-time engineer who bussed down with his local unions (shunning his private jet). Gallion believes that humor adds an additional dimension to political debate, a notion that, once again, will come to the fore in the Stewart/Colbert rally. “I think it makes it more fun and at the same time more real to people. It’s too easy to just kind of blank out the people with signs.”

As with all large political events, the One Nation rally attracted a variety of like-minded groups hoping to capitalize on the event. Exemplifying the plethora of causes, four women strolled through the crowd covered in bumper stickers collected from the myriad organizers. “We just went to everybody, just meeting everybody and hearing their causes.” The women, who traveled 14-hours by bus from Georgia, came to support the International Longshoreman’s Association/Local 1414 union, whose office is across the way from their restaurant Mama T’s.

For all its good causes, the One Nation rally may have ultimately been counter-productive for the unions. Given the context, they may have inadvertently proved that they are no longer the backbone of the left.

-Niv Elis

Tags: protest rally dc union lincoln memorial national mall one nation glenn beck activism