What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
I didn't watch the Jon Stewart rally, but I watched the Next Media Animation cartoon version, which is almost the same thing:
These guys are from Taiwan -- but somehow they captured the vibe of the event perfectly. It wasn't a rally for moderates. Or centrists. Or undecideds. It was a rally for Democrats. From the Daily Caller:
Only 1 percent of those in attendance at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s rally Saturday plan to vote Republican in Tuesday’s midterm elections, according to a poll by Lake Research Partners and Revolution Messaging.
Out of the 456 respondents in a straw poll at the Comedy Central political duo’s “Sanity or Fear” event, 86 percent of respondents said they plan to vote Democrat on Tuesday, 8 percent said they’re voting “other” and 5 percent said they’re not voting at all. None of those polled said they were undecided or didn’t know.
The poll shows the audience breaking from the national mood with abnormally high levels of approval for President Barack Obama. Of those polled, 90 percent said they approve of Obama, with 56 percent saying they strongly approve and 34 percent saying they somewhat approve. The Real Clear Politics average for late October shows 45.9 percent of Americans approve of Obama and 48.6 percent disapprove.
The poll matched what most of the attendees The Daily Caller talked to at the rally said Saturday. Attendees told TheDC that they plan to vote Democrat, down the line, even if they don’t know who the Democratic candidate is.
What a careful, thoughtful, moderated, nuanced group that was! It must have been a beehive of reasoned debate, though I have a hard time coming up with any potential debate topics. Seems like that crowd was in perfect agreement, on everything. Good Lord! We have sharper debates and more diversity of opinion here on Ricochet!
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Comments :
Oct '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Those who watch Stewart tend to be young 20-30 hipsters who know only 20-30 something hipsters and a handful of extreme lefties that they met in college. As far as they know they are moderates. After all, they've never been exposed to any other segment of society. These people truly believe they, Stewart, and Obama represent the center of the nation.
Jul '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Liberal Lexicon 1.0;
Bigot = Anyone winning an argument with a liberal
Bipartisanship = Conservatives capitulating to liberals
Extremist = Anyone with a position that is Not Liberal
Compassionate = Willing to take from someone that which is rightfully theirs in order to give to someone who is undeserving of it, simply because they need it.
Sane = Liberal. (Which is why re-education often takes place in mental hospitals. REF: Vivian Schiller / Juan Williams)
Anybody have more?
May '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
I see the point of holding it so close to the election. These are not people strongly motivated by anything in particular, and so you couldn't hold it before the pre-election weekend to have any discernible effect. Then again, the comments of many lead me to believe they're motivated to vote, but haven't registered yet. Something of a flaw in the plan.
Note that this pre-supposes the rally was designed to boost Democrats. Which of course it was. As a corollary, they're describing the majority of the country as insane, but they started that a couple of months ago.
May '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Kennedy Smith: Then again, the comments of many lead me to believe they're motivated to vote, but haven't registered yet. Something of a flaw in the plan.
Oct 31 at 12:09pm
Yep!
BTW, nice outfit, Kennedy. Anne Rice vintage, I presume? ;-)
May '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Spoken like a true right-wing nut, Rob! There are lots of things Rally to Restore Sanity attendees could debate, for instance: Is Sarah Palin a stupid distraction, a harmless clown, or the devil's hillbilly cousin? Is President Obama a smart guy, a really smart guy, or the smartest guy?
You can bet there were also heated conversations about how many Glenn Becks it would take to equal the wit of a single Jon Stewart.
May '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
It's not hard to attract a million liberals to the mall to bash conservatives... There are 3 million in DC, PG county, Montgomery County, Arlington and Alexandria alone.
I was there by the way, but like most conservatives I wouldn't have stood around to answer poll questions if there was a gun to my head!
May '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
FeliciaB
BTW, nice outfit, Kennedy. Anne Rice vintage, I presume? ;-) · Oct 31 at 12:36pm
The shirt is pure Anne Rice thrift store. Used, at one of her Halloween parties. The velvet vest was purchased new at the same store in New Orleans. Silk robe is my great grandfather's (Midas Sequicentius Smith).
May '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Damn, wish you would have. Given em an earful. I'm sure it was a good show, and bound to attract lots of locals. But the effect? Ehhh.
May '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
What bugs me most is Stewart's implication that caring strongly about anything is a sign of being a loon. What's needed is a civil tone but people caring strongly is something we need more of and standing on the sidelines laughing at everyone else is getting really old in the context of how large our problems have become.
Aug '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Y'all should check out Reason.tv's video from the event. lol
Jul '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Reason.TV
And in the spirit of Halloween (STAY UNTIL THE END!)
Greatest movie line ever.
Edited on Oct 31, 2010 at 3:02pmOct '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Misthiocracy:
Thanks for the ReasonTV rally video! Someone should shoot it over to the Daily Show, because they could clip from it for weeks.
Up on stage, it was like a combo of Sesame Street civics and a pissed off Mr. Rogers telling the kids that playing nice is important.
Aug '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Jaydee, very insightful. There is one tiny adjustment I would make to the above glossary definition of yours: "...simply because they need it--or simply because they want it."
Aug '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
I vehemently disagree, Mr. Long. But leave it to the likes of you and your fellow partisans to shamelessly exaggerate and ceaselessly misrepresent our differences of opinion!"
Aug '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Is it true that the attendance was "overwhelmingly white"? If so does that make it racist? I ask because a caricature of the Tea Party masquerading as analysis on public TV in Ireland this week joined those particular dots.Same journalist, paid from the compulsory TV licence fee (tax), did a predictable puff piece on the event yesterday.
Jul '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Here is the crucial fact: these folks weren't for anything, they were against the Tea Paty movement.
That fact hides another fact: the Tea Party movement is not a "negative" movement, it is a "positive" movement. It is a movement animated by the desire to reclaim our collective heritage.
The folks who gathered on the mall this weekend were, at most, animated by a desire to mock. While that will get you brownie points in the hipper sections of society, it will not animate people to go chnage the way things are!
Oct '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
I'm not even sure you can give them that much credit. This is the sort of coddled crowd who only understands the ironic. The idea of actually being for or against anything is rather foreign. If you watch the ReasonTV clip that was linked to earlier, the one thing that is apparent is that these people don't even understand why they showed up. They lack any passion one way or the other. Its exactly the attitude posed by Colbert when called to testify before congress. Rather than present a serious case, as someone who actually cared about an issue would, he makes a mockery of the system and the issue. That describes this rally. No passion, just mockery. I don't think its something to be taken seriously because these people lack the fortitude, mental or physical, to stop the tea parties. They would watch this nation slip into tyranny and their response would to be to crack a joke.
Edited on Oct 31, 2010 at 8:51pmAug '10
Re: What If You Threw A Rally for Sane Moderates, And They Didn't Come?
Another HILARIOUS video from the Rally To Restore Sanity and/or Fear, this one courtesy of The Second City:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_23Nt5XumaU