Last night Bruce Willis announced on the Daily Show that he will be going to Jon Stewart's Rally to Restore Sanity...It almost made me want to go. (I have a soft spot in my heart for John "Yippee Ki-Yay motherfucker!" McClane.)
But, alas, I'm not going to do it.
"But Max," you say, "you're one of the most liberal guys I know!"
True...
"You love Jon Stewart!"
Can't argue with that.
"And you have three weeks of vacation that you need to take by the end of the year!"
Uh, how'd you know about that? But, yeah, I do need to take some vacation time. Moreover, I've been meaning to get down to DC to visit friends for a while. So why am I declining to go?
Three reasons.
Reason (1) - Schlubs are not really protest people. I prefer nuance in my politics to some sort of mass rally. Even if I mostly agree with what the rally is about.
Reason (2) - Stewart is taking a "plague on both your houses" sort of stand. I do not believe that Republicans and Democrats are equally culpable in our current political morass. I'm not really sure if that's what Stewart believes, but the fact that he's saying that this is a rally for rationality is, well, sort of a cop out. The Republicans are at fault. Much, much more at fault than the Democrats. End of story. (I realize, by the way, that I just said I favored nuance in my politics. I don't think there's much nuance in what's happened since President Obama assumed office. The GOP has gone to all out war with him. But that's another discussion.)
Reason (3) - I still don't quite know what this protest is about. I mean, a rally to restore rationality. OK. I'm for it. Does this really have any sway with the tea baggers? No. Does this kind of thing convince anyone who isn't already convinced? No. Am I going to spend my Saturday going?
Nope.
