‘Let’s take it down a notch’

On Sept. 16, Comedy Central’s Jon Stewart announced his Rally To Restore Sanity, 1 million moderate march as he calls it. It was in order to make known that despite what may be shown on TV all the time with both sides constantly yelling at one another, there’s a majority out there who are not on the fringe, hate the partisanship and just want the problem fixed. Here’s what he said in an appearance on Oprah last week:

“..70 to 80 percent of the people in this country are reasonable, nice individuals, (they) may disagree on principle and things but could come up with rational compromises, could accomplish things, could get things done, could deliver the results, and then the other 15, 20 percent of the country, run the place.”

The fact that we’re in a time where a comedian from a cable network is one of the few common sense voices of reason in politics is something I think calls for a large dose of self-reflection of what is really happening here. The vitriol, animosity and extreme rhetoric is not even necessary. There are people out there like Florida Congressman Alan Grayson, who says that the GOP health care plan is for people to ‘die quickly,’ and those on the right who want to love to shout out socialism, communism or Marxism at every waking moment. Yes your party loves the red meat but in reality, no one can survive on a diet of just that. Any long-term survival has to be well-balanced. The fiery rhetoric definitely makes the news but does it really add any constructiveness to the debate? As one of Stewart’s signs displayed on the date of the announcement, “let’s take it down a notch, America.”

Posted by Ian Bridgeforth on Oct 1 2010. Filed under Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.