17 Impressions of Stewart-Colbert Rally
Didn't want to go. True-believing relative showed up. Thus compelled to go. My impressions:
-Never seen so many hipsters in trees
-Never heard the word "vote" uttered once
-Best month to rally on Mall: October. Worst: July, January.
-Are Port-o-Potties steel-reinforced? They can bear the weight of many hipsters
-DC Metro expected smaller crowd, got blindsided, gave up and let people ride free
-Rallygoers' main object of contempt--mild, detached contempt--was Tea Party, not GOP
-Signs a lot cleverer than your usual rally
-But, with exceptions, usually less so than authors seemed to think
-Comedy Central viewers MUCH better spellers than Tea Partiers
-Illustration of several of the preceding, sign reading: "Will Spell-Check Tea Party Signs for $5"
-Curiously large number of people dresses like Charlie Chaplin (did I miss an in-joke?)
-Pretty sure 75% of young-ish crowd had no clue who Cat Stevens was
-Ozzy sounded surprisingly good, considering
-Genuine, non-ironic Democratic signs were scarce. Saw a couple "Obama Cares," little else
-Mood was heavily ironic, slackerish. "Enthusiasm," such as it was, didn't seem voting-directed.
-Didn't get the sense too many people understood the purpose of rally (me either).
-Or care (meaning "all still had a good time").