Sanity? Sort of restored. Fear? Honestly, teabaggers still freak me out.

I wasn't planning on going to the rally on Saturday. I knew plenty of people who were, but I just couldn't work up the enthusiasm to go with them. Politics, these past few years, and especially these past few months, has become depressing as hell. Especially to someone who really drank the Obama Kool-Aid about hope, change, unicorns, etc. And while a natural counterbalance to that would seemingly be a rally held by Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert that would give everyone the chance to decompress and have a good laugh, it still seemed like it would also be a reminder of just how fucked up this country has gotten, thanks to one political party that doesn't have any guts, another party that's not only essentially become evil incarnate, but actually seems proud of it, and a media that doesn't seem to give a shit about any of it.

There was also a practical reason I didn't want to go: I knew there were going to be a lot of people, and that if you didn't get there really early, it would be impossible to get a good view. And at that point, if you're too far away to see anything and are just watching the rally on the big monitors set up along the Mall, why not just stay home and watch it on TV?

(It also didn't help that standing on the Mall for hours for Obama's inauguration last year is maybe the singular worst experience of my entire life.)

Then I woke up around five on Saturday morning, couldn't get back to sleep, and decided, what the hell? Let's do this thing. And you know what? I'm really glad I did.

The differences between this crowd and the ones at the Tea Party rallies I've been to, were striking. This crowd was younger. This crowd was multi-cultural. But more importantly, this crowd was happy. You could actually talk to people without getting sucked into a conversation about how [fill in the blank] was destroying America. The only mentions of Hitler were ironic. No one was making not-so-vague threats to kill people or overthrow the government if they didn't get their way. It was refreshing to see so many people gathered together by something other than hatred.

This is what too fucking early looks like. On the other hand, getting there too fucking early resulted in a pretty great view.

Even the most sane and reasonable of people go apeshit wild for free swag, so when hand towels were distributed early in the morning, everyone predictably went apeshit wild. The poor volunteer who probably thought he'd been assigned an easy gig handing these out, seemed totally unprepared for the onslaught of people rushing him, asking, "Can I have five?" The next volunteer was smart enough to just drop a large box of them on the ground and let people have at it. And we did! I got about seven of them. Christmas shopping done!

Whoever came up with the idea of showing Daily Show and Colbert Report episodes before the rally started should get one of those medals for reasonableness Stewart was handing out. The time spent waiting for the rally to start practically flew by. It sure as hell beat the interminable wait for Obama's inauguration to begin, where we were treated to Obama's victory speech on the monitors. Twice.

Some of the acts seemed like odd choices. One result of the crowd being so young was this conversation I overheard:

"Who's that guy?"
"Yusuf Islam."
"Who's Yusuf Islam?"
"A singer. He used to be Cat Stevens."
"Who's Cat Stevens?"

The closest area to the stage was reserved for VIPs (a term used quite loosely at this event). A lot of them seemed to be New Yorkers who came down on the Huffington Post buses, which was apparently a total clusterfuck.

For the first two hours of the rally, people would arrive, meet up with friends they'd been separated from in New York, and hug each other like they were 1930s immigrants reuniting on Ellis Island after weeks at sea. I amused myself by reading their annoyed tweets before the rally. I mean, it sucks, but you get what you pay for, you know? The people who really wanted to be there sprung for Amtrak or, like Peter David, were smart enough to hit the road super early.

As for the rally itself, I actually thought it got off to a lousy start. I mean, don't get me wrong, a Roots performance? Great! The Roots performing with John Legend? Awesome! But for half an hour? Before either Stewart or Colbert took the stage? I can't be the only person wondering if they'd overslept or something.

Then there were the MythBusters guys. I'm not going to lie. I absolutely despised this part, and began seriously questioning my decision to even come. I don't watch the show, so it's possible I just didn't get the bit, but asking the crowd to do a wave (several times), make various noises, and then jump up and down in unison to measure the resulting seismic activity, seemed stupid and pointless and totally unrelated to either sanity or fear. Maybe if they'd come out later on, it would have been more tolerable. But by this point, I was getting restless waiting for the rally to get started an hour after it technically began.

Everything else was gold, though. The whole thing probably could have been whittled down to two hours without losing too much, but a little filler wasn't a big deal. The comedy was great, the musical performances were great, and especially the music/comedy bit with Stewart, Colbert, Islam and Ozzy Osbourne, was the highlight of the whole thing.

As for the main message of the rally, in the form of Stewart's speech at the end...I don't know. I'm not sure it's going to have any appreciable effect. Not on Election Day tomorrow, and not going forward. The speech was certainly heartfelt and I agree with it 100% in theory. But I also think this is a really great point:

Can people who think Christine O'Donnell should be a senator, or that Sarah Palin would make a great president, or that Glenn Beck is the gold standard of journalism, be reasoned with? I don't think so. I'd be happy to be proven wrong, though.