If you were there, you might have experienced the hugeness of the crowd and realized what a horror of a stampede or riot was possible.
The two comedians, aided by Ozzie Ozborne and Yusuf, the former Cat Stevens and, at the end, the inimitable Tony Bennett, among many others, managed to entrance the throngs for all those remarkable hours.
And Stewart, more than Colbert, managed to wax serious without losing himself or looking ridiculous.
In a tradition that stretches back to ancient Greece, the great Aristophanes, who created the ultimate of schatological, obscene lines in his comedies and perhaps to an unparalleled degree in literary history, interrupted the stomach-jiggling in each play with a parabasis, an interlude in which one of the actors would take over the stage to deliver sobering, insightful commentaries on society as it was. Then the fun would recommence.
Today was Stewart's parabasis. He who had pulled few jokes out of President Obama on his Daily Show last Wednesday and survived the sobriety, caught the bug so compellingly today I could swear he'd make a great politician. His manner and words were statesmanly and foresighted.
He has proved that he could follow in the steps of Al Franken, former comic, now U.S. senator representing Minnesota. "From funny men to cultural forces" was WaPo's take on the partial metamorphoses the guys pulled off today. Words like "We live now in hard times but these are not end times" rose nearly to the stature of Lincoln at his peak moments.
It was ironic that this rally took place on the other side of the mall from the Lincoln Memorial, where Glen Beck's rally and then the Progressive/labor response to it together drew far fewer people than this multipartisan event, as I also had predicted.
A great statement. United, we stand. Another of the reasons we left today was that so many of the attendees were standing while people sat either on portable chairs or on the ground. Those in chairs blocked the view of the latter, and those standing blocked the view of both.
The Washington Post has a complete transcript of the event .
The spontaneity and ad libbing I could view "up close" put me to sleep in front of the TV, I confess. But it had to be that way. To borrow a bon mot Stewart dug up today, animus existed among us, but not for those few hours. Since "animus" is so closely related to "animate," perhaps you can understand why this mixture of clowning around, performing, and deep sobriety, stripped of animus, lulled me close to completely, given also that we'd walked from Dupont Circle to the mall that morning.
WaPo reported that the idea for this rally came on August 30, in response to the highly emotional Glenn Beck rally, which to a large degree lacked both sanity and fear, to the point of that gesture of ugly ("n-word") racism that went unpunished--one unfortunate African American wanting to join the tea party event was rudely asked to leave (I don't know if he did).
That might have been the nadir moment for the Tea Party, whose founder is alienated at the direction his brainchild has taken since its birth.
One attendee at today's rally identified him/herself as a member of the Decaf Party.
I belong to the Coca Cola Party, as in "It's a small world after all" (how prophetic those words were) and "I'd like to buy the world a Coke."
To animate the Tea Party out of its animus (how close to "animosity" also), maybe a good shot of "America's drink" would be effective. Or else throwing lots of cream, sugar, and Splenda into the Potomac. How many of us really drink our tea "black"?
What epithet would that event bestow upon us--the Dulcetlechicide Party? The Flavoricides?
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