Comedian Jon Stewart has described his “Rally to Restore Sanity,” taking place Saturday afternoon at the National Mall in Washington, D.C., as “not political.” But some feel the event will translate into more votes for Democrats on Election Day.
On campus, students were offered trips to go to the rally — which will be held in conjunction with Stephen Colbert’s “March to Keep Fear Alive” — by both Penn Democrats and the college houses.
“I think it is political, in that it’s three days before the election and being held by a political commentator,” Penn Dems President and College junior Emma Ellman-Golan said. “I know he’s a comedian, but still, he’s a political commentator.”
But for Harrison College House Dean Frank Pellicone, the college house-wide trip is more about the “cultural phenomenon” of Stewart and Colbert. “It’s an unusual opportunity to have someone from a comedy network organizing something that may or may not be a political rally,” he said, adding that he believes “rallying for sanity is not a partisan issue — you could argue that sanity is needed for both sides.”
Penn Dems are hoping that the trip will persuade some students to help the group on Election Day.
“We’re going to ask [student participants] to sign up for some shifts on Election Day, but they’re certainly not required to do so,” she said.
Ellman-Golan also clarified that the group will not “be sacrificing a day” of canvassing on the last weekend before Election Day. According to her, Penn Dems has about 3,000 members. “Plenty of people will stay behind canvassing,” she said, adding that “this is a trip for people interested in what’s going on but don’t usually go canvassing.”
Peter Levine — director of the Tufts University-based Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, which studies youth voting trends — was unable to comment on the effects of the rally on voter turnout. However, he wrote in an e-mail that he does not think the rally will hurt efforts to get out the vote, “it’s probably a motivation to get out and do something rather than a distraction.”
Maegan Carberry, spokeswoman for nonpartisan youth mobilizer Rock the Vote, described the event as “the largest PSA for voting in a midterm election in history.”
“If anything, [the rally] creates a sense of national momentum” surrounding voting, she said.
Ellman-Golan does not believe the rally will energize young Republican voters. “I think Jon Stewart is pretty much a liberal comedian, and that’s his audience,” she said, adding that the rally is partly a response to “Republican primaries around the country that kicked down a lot of moderate candidates in favor of radical ones.”
Annenberg School for Communication professor Alvin Felzenberg agreed. Stewart is “not selling this as a Democratic rally, he’s denying it. I call that being disingenuous,” he said. “I’m a fan of Mr. Stewart, but … I think it was pretty clear what Glenn Beck wanted people at his rally to do on Election Day, and I think it’s clear what Jon Stewart wants them to do.”
Carberry, however, doesn’t believe the rally will cater to Democratic youth exclusively. Though Stewart and Colbert interview political figures, “at the end of the day it is an entertainment-driven experience.”
Felzenberg also had reservations about taking students away from canvassing for a tight election race — such as Pennsylvania’s Senate race — so close to Election Day. “If I were a candidate, I would tell students they’d make a much bigger impact staying here,” he said.
“The big message is, why is our discourse being monitored by people who draw Hitler moustaches on Obama? And at the same time, on our end, people who are accusing [former President George W.] Bush of war crimes?” Ellman-Golan asked.
But according to Felzenberg, Stewart is as “polarizing as anyone else on television.”
“I enjoy his wit and his jokes about the Tea Party and Democrats and Republicans,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it’s not polarizing.”
