Sanity Solves Nothing

I like reasonableness, in small doses. Certainly The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are fantastic for taking aim at the extreme factions in the current political discourse and the increasingly hysterical media that promotes them. But now they're going beyond just mocking the ridiculous, they're organizing their followers and they're taking action. They're very angry about how everyone is so angry, and they're staging what looks to be a fairly massive protest for people who don't like protests. It's all going to be very civilized and reasonable and a complete waste of everyone's time.

Don't get me wrong, like most of my generation, I'm a big fan of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. But I've got some problems with this rally. For one, it implies the problem with America right now is people are too passionate about politics. I don't think that's true. Apathy still wins every election by a landslide, that's not likely to change any time soon. Most people don't care about politics. And the people who do care, the people who are making a lot of noise right now, the Glenn Becks and tea partiers that this rally is against, well their problem isn't that they're loud, it's that the things they're saying are so horrible and wrong. If Obama really was half the things they think he is they'd be right to be so mad. It's like if someone was pissing on your floor. You don't get mad at them for needing to piss, the problem is that they're doing it on your floor.

My other problem is I don't get what they're trying to accomplish with this. Their point seems to be that they're tired of only hearing from the crazy people. But who's this protest aimed at? The crazy people aren't going to listen, if they were willing to listen to reason then they wouldn't be crazy in the first place. And if it's aimed at the media, for giving the crazies so much attention, well The Daily Show is part of the media. Jon Stewart is on TV four nights a week mocking these people, and now he's having a whole rally about them. There's no way that he's not implicated in giving the tea partiers and other assorted loons attention.

I don't blame him for this, he's a comedian. Of course he's gonna focus on the nuts, they're what's funny. But when you organize people for a political rally you make yourself a political figure. He's gathered all these like minded people together, but to do what? Nixon never had to ask his silent majority to march for him, they just needed to vote for him. Jon Stewart is declaring himself the leader of the silent minority, and is asking them to show up so their presence can be briefly be acknowledged before they slink back off without making too much of a fuss. After all, not making too much of a fuss is their whole position. Is it any wonder the tea party are the ones gaining traction and getting all the attention? What they're saying is stupid, but at least they're saying something. Crazy people will always find a way to make their voices heard. That's why you see a lot of crazy people ranting on the subway, but rarely ever any people standing up to let everyone know how sane they are. If you're sane you should just get on with it.

The Stephen Colbert March to Keep Fear Alive is worse. If the Daily Show protest is ironic, but with a serious message underneath, the Colbert protest is entirely ironic. One of the best parts of The Colbert Report is his total refusal to break character or even let the mask slip for a second. But he's gotten so good at playing his character, and he's such a natural showman, that the phony bragging and vainglory has kind of become an end in itself. I'm sure most of Stephen Colbert's fans are in on the joke, but they also really like getting to cheer and chant his name and get bridges named after him.

With no political purpose behind it, most of the people who'll be there are probably just looking for something to do, happy to be out of the house. It's only barely a step up from a flash-mob. The ultimate goal of having a lot of people turn up at the Colbert march will be that he can then go on the show next week and brag about how many people showed up. And he'll be joking, but his fans will be genuinely proud.

Stewart, along with the half of the country that doesn't think Obama worships the devil, has been regularly taking to Obama to task for being weak. And… okay, they've got a point. But, whether you believe it or not, in a democracy Presidents tend to be moved by the will of the people, not the other way round. Most of the great presidents in American history, the people Obama's supporters wanted him to be, were the figureheads of ideas. Obama doesn't really represent any big idea for making America better, mostly because no one ever decided what they wanted him to do. “Be a smart guy and fix all our problems” sucks as a mandate, and with that as his base it's no wonder he quickly got swamped and ended up mostly reacting to the challenges of others.

With a captive audience of disillusioned young people willing to be mobilized and obviously dying to make their voices heard about something, Stewart does seem to have accidentally created a protest movement. But it's a protest movement without any ideas. So all that's going to happen is thousands of the young and the smug will descend on Washington, pat themselves on the back for being smarter than everyone, and then go home. While the other movements, crazy or not, who have real goals and are getting candidates elected will briefly feel the chill of our disdain and then go back to becoming the people who actually get to run the country.