Amid bitter US election, liberal comics lead rally for some sanity

Thousands of people streamed onto Washington’s National Mall yesterday for a rally hosted by liberal comics Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, billed as an antidote to the ugly political mood dividing America ahead of midterm elections.

“It’s chaotic but sane. There are a tonne of diverse, happy people,” said James Cuizon, who had travelled from Hawaii to attend the Rally to Restore Sanity and the parallel March to Keep Fear Alive and was on the chilly mall hours before the events were due to kick off at 6 p.m.

Although the organisers insist it is non-political, many see the rally as a liberal response to the ultra-conservative Tea Party movement, which has held events across America to oppose what it views as growing government intrusion into their lives.

The right-wing movement has helped mobilise opposition to the policies of President Barack Obama, whose Democratic Party is expected to suffer severe losses to Republicans in Tuesday’s legislative and gubernatorial elections.

Conservative radio talk show host Glenn Beck appalled liberals in August when he hosted a rally “to restore honour” on the anniversary and at the site, on the mall, of civil rights leader Martin Luther King’s famous “I have a dream” speech.

At least 80,000 people – hundreds of thousands according to organisers – turned out at Beck’s rally to show their opposition to Obama and what they call his administration’s big government or “socialist” policies.

Two weeks later, Stewart and Colbert, considered two of the funniest men in America thanks to their primetime political satire shows on Comedy Central, announced twin rallies on the mall, which were later combined into one.

The name ‘The Rally to Restore Sanity’ is an unabashed dig by Stewart at Beck’s event. Colbert branded his event the ‘March to Keep Fear Alive’ in keeping with his role as mock conservative foil to the liberal Stewart.

The organisers describe the rally as a 21st century version of the Woodstock music festival held in upstate New York in the midst of the Vietnam War, “but with the nudity and drugs replaced by respectful disagreement”.

Darlene Hall, an American who sought refuge in Canada with her conscientious objector husband on the first day of the Woodstock festival in 1969, was watching the rally on television from her home in Ontario.

“This is Woodstock 2010 for the people, by the people and of the people,” she said. “The silent majority is speaking up.”

A quarter of a million people from around the US, Canada and central America have said on the rally’s Facebook pages that they are coming to Washington for the event.

Hundreds more will attend spin-off events around the US and world, from one described as “at the Gazebo in the park, just north of the fire station” in Memphis, Tennessee, to one near the Eiffel Tower in Paris and another at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque in Israel.

Barbara Benagh, who flew in from Boston, said on the rally’s Facebook page: “After months of depressing displays, we can’t wait to see other sane people and feel better.”

The event has become “an assertion of left-wing values” not seen since January 2009, when some 1.5 million people overflowed the mall for Obama’s inauguration, Anna Fifield wrote in London’s Financial Times.

Manuel Diaz flew in from Nicaragua, and Geneva Kantner caught a midnight flight from Seattle, on the west coast, to be at the event.

Trains from New York and Baltimore were sold out, according to travellers headed to the rally.

Stephen Williams from South Carolina said on Facebook that “every single person on the shuttle from the airport was attending the rally”.