“Iowans look to ’Sanity’ rally to restore reasonableness”

Iowans look to ’Sanity’ rally to restore reasonableness

Posted: 31 Oct 2010 02:13 AM PDT

The attitude of the day was perhaps best summed up by the completely serious guy in the brown and orange polyester with the bushy mustache, the motorcycle-cop sunglasses and the Afro wig:

"I think it just calls attention to the fact that there's a lot of people out there who would like a more reasonable approach to things," Daryl Miller said as he sipped a beverage and watched Jon Stewart's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on a television at Legends in downtown Des Moines. "There's a lot of people who would like us all to come together. They're just not as loud."

Between 60 and 75 central Iowa residents united, mostly quietly, on the Saturday before Halloween, for a joint Des Moines viewing of Stewart's national call for America to "tone it down a notch." The comedian and rally co-host Stephen Colbert introduced musical guests, handed out awards to various Americans who best epitomized sanity and/or fear, and generally tried to bridge the gap between the extremes of American politics and culture.

Stewart, host of Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," mocked the "funhouse mirror" view of America that springs from 24-hour news channels and used footage of traffic merging into a tunnel to illustrate how Americans make small concessions every day for the greater good.

Most people don't live primarily as a Republican or a Democrat, Stewart said near the end of the three-hour event. Instead, a majority spend their time as "people who are just a little bit late for something they have to do."

"We live now in hard times, not end times," he said. "We can have animus and not be enemies."

Amen, sayeth the Iowans - a group that appeared to be mostly Democrat-leaning but mostly low-key about it. (Although Glenn Beck's name came up, in a negative context, more than once.)

There were no political speeches at the Des Moines rally and indeed no pontificating of any kind, except when prodded. No politicians were present except for former state Rep. Ed Fallon, who came late and sat in a corner. Instead, Iowans came to voice support for reasonableness and to enjoy the comedy.

In politics and on cable news, "the loudest voices seem to be heard the best these days, and they make the biggest paychecks," said Michael Meyer of Norwalk. "Moderates just don't seem to make the news."

Meyer and his wife, Candice, sat next to Christie and Andrew Denison of Ames.

"I think something like this draws attention to the fact that there are people out there in the middle," Andrew said.

Christie Denison added, "What would be nice would be if the national media would then notice and say, 'OK, this is what the people want.' "

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