3:AM Magazine

By Robert O’Connor.

Chicago’s Grant Park has a long history of monumental political events.  The Democratic Party split apart there in 1968, and it came together in triumph there 40 years later.  Obama’s campaign came to an end in the park. A few blocks away, on the corner of Jackson and LaSalle is the Chicago Board of Trade, where the Tea Party - Obama’s greatest adversary in both substance and style - was born a few months later.  And a few days before this past election, thousands of people gathered in Grant Park in an attempt to bring the much needed sanity to politics that had been missing as the two Chicago titans had their presence in Washington.

Chicago was one of several cities around the country - and the world - that held satellite rallies of the Rally to Restore Sanity that was held on the Washington mall.  The rally was Jon Stewart’s response to Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” rally that took place on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on August 28th - the 47th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom where Martin Luther King delivered his famous “I Have a Dream” speech.  Beck’s rally was supposed to be a “continuation” of what King supposedly wanted and ended up being a call from the controversial radio/TV host to turn to God for guidance in “saving” America from the various demons he sees trying to destroy it.

Beck’s attempt to follow in King’s footsteps was seen as a vain publicity stunt and comparisons made between Beck and King (most of them made by Beck himself) loudly rang hollow: His support of the War in Iraq, the stigmatizing of Muslims that he embraced, his violent on-air fantasies, his utter lack of compassion, his self-aggrandizing, his reckless demonization of political others and his bizarre claim that Barack Obama - the first African American president, who is half-white and was raised for a time by his white grandparents - had a deep seated hatred of white people.  If Martin Luther King were alive today, Beck would denounce him as a communist and demand that he be followed by the FBI, like King was late in his life.

Stewart’s Rally to Restore Sanity - and Stephen Colbert’s simultaneous “counter-protest” “Keep Fear Alive” were meant to bring out the great majority of Americans who are not on either political extreme - Stewart said these extremes were typified by the Tea Party on the right and Code Pink on the left.  One of the criticisms that Stewart got from liberals in the lead up to the rally was that it was a false equivalency.  The Tea Party is a huge force in Republican politics, while Code Pink is marginal in the Democratic Party and even the left in general.

I agree, but I also think that there are wild things that liberals believe that don’t help a reasonable conversation no matter how uncommon they are.  Some in Minnesota, for example, still believe that Paul Wellstone was assassinated because of his opposition to the Iraq War.  I personally believe that Wellstone died in a plane crash caused by a pilot error, but conspiracists insist it was something more.

Conservatives criticized Stewart for holding a rally that would make fun of activism or the Tea Party or Glenn Beck.  None of those things happened - Stewart had already brilliantly parodied Beck’s style on the Daily Show.  Dick Armey mocked Stewart’s call for civility and an end to mean-spiritedness saying “Don’t do what I do every night.”  Except Stewart DOESN’T do that every night.  His show is not mean-spirited against ordinary people, activist or anyone except politicians and the media who cover them.  Stewart punches up, not down.

The Daily Show is a parody of the media that covers politics.  Stewart has plenty of jabs against politicians that do stupid things, but whether they’re mentioned or not, the media is the target of satire every night.  Their obsession with celebrities, tiny details, parliamentary strategy and the willingness to talk to people who have been fatally wrong as if they were still credible experts.  And of course to look equally at both sides of something which is indisputable.  CBS News’ Lara Logan, when a guest on the Daily Show said “If I had to watch it every day I’d blow my brains out.”

For all it’s satire, The Daily Show offers a great alternative in its segments with guests, promoting their latest book or movie or whatever.  Stewart is polite, but skeptical.  He lets guests talk and he doesn’t act like a titan throwing his weight around like, say, Bill O’Reilly does.  The interviews are some of the best on television, and I think TV Producers should take notes on them and apply them to interviews on their networks.

Stewart’s main target has always been the media - as it was in his famous appearance on “Crossfire” that’s said to have hastened the CNN mainstay’s cancellation five years ago.  It was so again in the Rally to Restore Sanity, exemplified by Stewart’s serious closing speech:

“The country’s 24 hour political pundit perpetual panic conflictinator did not cause our problems but its existence makes solving them that much harder.  The press can hold its magnifying up to our problems bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous flaming ant epidemic.”

When Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert announced “Rally to Restore Sanity/Keep Fear Alive”, it was to take place on October 30th in Washington - three days before election day.  Almost immediately afterward folks around the country - around the world - started planning satellite events.  Angie McMahon, the founder of the Chemically Imbalanced Theater company and Radar Talent Management, sent the paperwork in to the Chicago Park District to hold a satellite event in Grant Park.

The event was picking up fans on Facebook, especially after their permit being denied was reported in the local media.  They were still allowed to assemble due to an affidavit filed by McMahon in the early stage of the process asking that certain fees be waived under the First Amendment right to peaceably assemble, which the Park District approved.  Despite the lack of an official permit, the Park District and some volunteer members of the Chicago Police provided security.

The event was to be held from 11am to 2pm - at the same time as the rally in Washington - at the Petrillo Music Shell, one block east of the Art Institute of Chicago.  Among the people who would speak included comedians, musicians and a handful of activists on issues like immigration and health care.  McMahon said later she picked those issues because they were the ones people were being the most hysterical about - the issues where people were most likely to call the opposition “Hitler.”

The hope was that the rally would be a local attempt for everyone to calm down, at least when dealing with opponents on policy.  One of the slogans Jon Stewart used for the rally was “I may disagree with what you have to say, but you are not Hitler.”

ELECTION NIGHT

Election night 2008 in Grant Park (photos are mine)

The Petrilo Music Shell, and Butler field that it faces was the section of Grant Park I was in on Election Night 2008.  It had been known for days that Obama would hold his election day celebration in Grant Park - more specifically in Hutchinson Field which is on the southern end of the park.  Tickets for that celebration sold out almost instantly.  On election day, the Park District decided to open the northern half of Grant Park - everything north of the Buckingham Fountain - to be open to the public and be fitted with several jumbotrons so people could gather and watch the election - and history - unfold.

November 4th was a warm autumn day for Chicago - it was warm enough that I didn’t need a jacket.  The buildings that surrounded the park lit their lights saying “2008″ “Vote” and “USA.”  On Michigan Avenue, merchants had set up make-shift shops with Obama-related souvenirs.  The Loop had been closed to road traffic for a few hours.  The Revolutionary Communist Party passed around pamphlets warning of the inevitable takeover of corporations and the religious right.  As the results came in, everyone cheered when Obama won a state, no matter how predictable and everyone booed when McCain won a state, no matter how predictable.  Finally, at 10pm, CNN projected that Obama would win.

Elation. Ecstasy.  Cheers all around.

It felt like a well-behaved rock concert.  Hardly anyone was disorderly or a nuisance, but the place was packed and filled with admiration for the rock star that was about to become president.  The first black president - something many people didn’t believe could happen in their lifetimes.  History was being made and we had all made it happen - and we were all there to witness it.

Before Obama spoke, John McCain gave his concession speech.  It was noble, honorable and gracious.  Just like the man himself until he decided to run for president.  But people in Grant Park applauded when he walked out, listened attentively when he spoke, and applauded again when he finished.  The only point everyone booed was when Sarah Palin, his running mate, was mentioned.  The hope among many was that she’d go back to Alaska and stay there.

But she would come back, as the leading advocate of a new crop of activists who dwelled on older themes.

BIRTH OF A TEA PARTY

The Chicago Board of Trade is a building right out of a hardboiled comic.  The clock on the LaSalle side of the building is surrounded by three gargoyle-like statues: an eagle, an Egyptian holding wheat and an Indian holding corn.  The old trade building, demolished in 1929 to make way for the new one, had two life-size statues by its front door - one of Industry, the other of Agriculture.  Those statues have been at the parking entrance of the new building near the LaSalle entrance since 2005.  It’s no surprise that the building is a prominent fixture of Gotham in the two Batman films made by Christopher Nolan.

Board of Trade clock

It was in this building that the Tea Party was born.  Or more specifically where it was named.

Protests were being organized against the proposed stimulus bill - named “porkulus” by its opponents.  Rallies against “porkulus” were being promoted by bloggers, with Michelle Malkin the one with the highest profile.  The stimulus ended up passing and President Obama signed it into law on Febuary 17, 2009.

Then on Febuary 19, CNBC’s morning show “The Squawk Box” invited on its man on the CBOT, Rick Santelli, to discuss the “Homeowners Affordability and Stability Plan,” a program meant to help homeowners avoid foreclosure by encouraging lenders to have clear guidelines for loan modification, to use government funds to help keep down the cost of payment by the borrower, encouraging modifications of the mortgage during bankruptcy and strengthening confidence in government mortgage providers - the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (”Freddie Mac”) and the Federal National Mortgage Association (”Fannie Mae”).

Santelli saw the program as “promoting bad behavior,” at one point turning around to face the traders - this was during pre-market hours - and saying “This is America.  How many of you people want to pay for your neighbors’ mortgage that has an extra bathroom and can’t pay their bills?”  The traders voiced their approval.  “How about this, new President and new administration, why don’t you put up a Web site and have people vote on the internet…to see if we really want to subsidize the losers’ mortgages,” he continued.

And then, “We’re thinking of having a Chicago Tea Party in July.”  He later told the New York Daily News that he was being half serious, but that single sentence began the tea party movement.

What began as an objection to the stimulus bill, and later government spending in general has become a force in American politics.  It’s being credited with the results of the midterm elections that gave the Republicans control of the House and made Democrats almost lose the Senate.  Its candidates have ousted Democratic icons that have been in office for decades like Jim Oberstar, Ike Skelton and Russ Feingold.

It began as an objection to government spending, but has become something much more disturbing and dangerous.  During the health care debates that soon followed its formation, incivility reigned.  Congressmen were screamed at during town halls.  Conspiracists who believed that Obama is a Muslim or Kenyan had been pushed aside during the 2008 election, and thanks to the Tea Partiers, they have become vocal prominent supporters of Obama’s opponents.

Keith Olbermann recently had a 20 minute long special comment (part 1, part 2) on his show “Countdown” that included a litany of whacky and dangerous things Tea Party-endorsed candidates for Congress have said or done.  And while some of it is just innocent weird things for the laughs, like Christine O’Donnell’s dabbling in witchcraft, others are quite chilling.

Joe Miller’s private security detail handcuffed a journalist who wanted to ask him a question.  Supporters of Rand Paul beat a counter-protester at an event and one volunteer for Paul stomped on her.  In an astonishing disregard for transparency and availability to the public, many candidates swore off doing interviews with journalists or even debating their opponents.  Comparing Obama to Hitler is a common sign at Tea Party events, while others insist that Obama is trying to enslave the country - specifically those with white skin.  Stephen Broden even tacitly endorsed violence if the Tea Partiers didn’t get their way.

All this has contributed to an environment in which politics has become a distorted hateful mess.  Politicians have to disagree while describing their opponents in the worst of terms, or else be branded “too soft on the enemy.”  And the enemy is someone that should just be a worthy opponent.

This is the environment that the Rally to Restore Sanity was held.

A TALL ORDER

A non-partisan rally calling for moderation is a tall order.  Stewart’s rally had varying expectations, and was criticized on both sides for being either too comedic or too serious.  In a charged political environment, both extremes can agree that sanity and moderation is bad.

The satellite rallies had another difficult roadblock, and that was how much of their own stamp could they put on it.  Most of the people who came to the rally in Chicago, where I was, had heard about the rally through Facebook, who had a list of speakers.  The rest may have heard about it from Chicagoist, or the Chicago Tribune, or CBS who reported on the rally losing its protest permit, but continuing anyway.  The stories made it sound like it would be about the DC rally and didn’t mention the speakers.  One Chicago radio host said, falsely, that Obama would be appearing at the event. Several people were upset that there were guest speakers and called the event a “bait and switch.”

It was the day before Halloween, and many people had on their costumes, some of them of a political nature.  One guy had a Captain America costume on, shield and all.  There were a few witches, who carried signs with not too subtle jabs at Christine O’Donnell.  A ten year old boy in a Harry Potter costume stole the show during the opening dance-off.  Two guys also came in Blues Brothers outfits.

One man had on a white sheet and hood, with a sign that equated the Republican Party with the Ku Klux Klan, something I’d expect to see at an anti-Tea Party event, but not a Rally to Restore Sanity.  Chicago Magazine singled him out as a reason why the rally was a disappointment:  They were expecting a call for moderation, but ended up getting more extreme political rhetoric from the opposition, albeit from a man in the audience, not a speaker.

The speakers, on the other hand, didn’t help.  The central mistake of the rally in Chicago was that its speakers were to give speeches during the DC rally, while a jumbotron showed the rally with muted sound.  The schedule was to switch to the DC rally for five minutes at a time for a total of 20 minutes out of a three hour event.  At other satellite rallies, the local speakers came on before or after the DC rally, while the DC Rally was the focus when it was happening.

And when faced with the choice of the DC Rally - which included speakers like Stewart, Colbert, Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman (the Mythbusters) - or the Chicago speakers, in many cases the DC speakers were preferable.  At one point, a Chicago comedian named Aaron Weaver went into a long discussion of when a sandwich becomes a sandwich.  It wasn’t funny and it dragged on and on and ON.  On the jumbotron, Stewart was speaking or doing a skit with Stephen Colbert and a section of the crowd started demanding that the audio be turned on.

A member of the security team then grabbed a microphone and told the audience they were acting like a bunch of children and to be considerate to the speakers or else they’d be escorted off - “If you want to just watch the rally, you might as well have stayed at home,” she said.

Angie McMahon, the organizer of the rally took the stage a few minutes later and - much more politely - asked the audience to be considerate.  They were there to restore sanity, after all.  She also said she brought on political speakers who could reasonably discuss controversial issues.  Those speakers included Jorge Mujeica of Illinois Immigration Rights Advocate, Dr. Rob Stone who is an advocate for universal health care.  Rich Whitney, the Green Party candidate for Governor of Illinois also spoke.  Pat Quinn, the current governor was also scheduled to speak, but cancelled and attended Barack Obama’s event instead.  Quinn ended up winning re-election despite polling that said he would lose.

Some of the complaints about the rally have centered around the politically-oriented speakers, even from people who believe in things like health care reform and immigration reform.

McMahon later wrote that she was surprised by the tone of many of the speakers as much as the audience was.  One of them was Don Hall, who also runs a theater company.  No one was prepared for the profanity-laced rant he gave about anger in politics (which you can read in full on his blog) which began “I believe that the impending victory of numerous Tea Party candidates is the epilogue to the white straight man’s penis running the show.”

Ray Hanania, a Christian Palestinian activist and comedian also did a comedy routine, starting it off with “So, did anyone send any packages from Yemen?” A reference to the front-page story in that morning’s newspapers about parcel bombs that were intercepted on their way from Yemen to two Jewish organizations in Chicago.

There were, to be fair, some good speakers.  Danny Draher and Bucky Haker played great music, as did BC.  Greg Hollimon, who’s best known for his work on “Strangers with Candy” gave a very funny faux-sermon which included a discussion of the mole people and their universal health care.  Michael Patrick Thorton, an actor on “Private Practice” gave a speech in the character of Franklin Roosevelt that was very funny.

For one reason or another, many people walked out before the rally was over.  Many of them walked to the Bennigans a few blocks away on Michigan and Jackson and watched the DC rally there.

McMahon apologized for disappointing people the following day on the Facebook page.  She admitted this was her first time organizing a political rally and swore that she would never put together another event like it again.  She’s gotten plenty of supporters on that page, but that won’t lift her spirit enough to do another after this one turned out so badly.

But putting together a political rally in Chicago in a short amount of time almost by oneself is no easy task.  The fact that this was McMahon’s first time putting one together and that she did it all while six months pregnant with her second child makes whatever achievements she had - in spite of the disasters - all the more remarkable.

I’m also encouraged by the fact that so many people showed up who wanted what Jon Stewart wanted.  The Park District’s informal estimate was that 7,000 people showed up in Chicago, while estimates of the one in DC range from 200-250,000.  They wanted sanity in politics.  They wanted a reasonable alternative to just two bad picks.  They wanted to talk about serious issues without the risk of being called “Hitler” or “communist” or whatever other epithets are thrown around.  They wanted what the Chicago Tribune thought Obama could bring to politics when they endorsed him for president - the first time in the paper’s 160 year history that they endorsed the Democrat for president. (the original endorsement is missing from the Tribune’s online archive, but the Sun-Times has preserved it)

No matter what was done, there would’ve been critics saying the rally was not serious enough, or not focused on the right issues, or was too slanted in one direction.  Much of the criticism has come from people who think that their politics are not the problem, it’s the other guy who’s too crazy.  This is exactly the attitude to be addressed, since it rests on the assumption that the problem is external, and no introspection is needed.  Introspection is one thing that’s sorely lacking in today’s American politics from the elected leaders on down to their constituency - supporters and opponents.

Rallying to restore sanity is not an easy task, and there was no guarantee of success.  The rally was the first one Angie McMahon organized in her life.  And the fact that it turned out the way it did shows that ordinary people can still do extraordinary things. And given everything that happened, I can’t blame her for giving up.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Robert O’Connor is a journalist, writer, adventurer and a few dozen other things (including Co-Editor of 3:AM). His stuff has appeared in the Twin Cities Daily Planet, Hot Press, KFAI and a few other places. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.

First published in 3:AM Magazine: Saturday, November 6th, 2010.