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Jon Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity

On Saturday, the comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert held the “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” in Washington D.C. At the end of the day, Jon Stewart made a short ten minute speech about why he wanted to hold the rally – arguing that there was a spirit of cooperation in America where not everyone was portrayed as an extremist.

He argued that holding an opposing view shouldn’t be a reason to demonise somebody, summarising that “we live now in hard times, not end times”.

Stewart self-deprecatingly remarked that:

I know there are boundaries for a comedian-funny-talker-guy, and I’m sure I’ll find out tomorrow how I have violated them

Nevertheless, Stewart seems to have taken on a role as a serious political analyst, and the rally seems to have struck a chord with some people.

I’ve no idea what effect this will have in the long term. I’ve made predictions before, and that didn’t work very well, so I’ll try and resist the temptation. The only thing I will say is that I doubt it will affect the mid-term elections today. But if Jon Stewart’s ideas gather followers things could get quite interesting in American politics.

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