You may or may not have heard, but evidently tens of thousands of young people are expected to descend on Washington this Saturday in a march for sanity and/or fear. The March for Sanity and/or Fear devised by comedians Jon Stewart and Steven Colbert has been greeted with disdain from large parts of the punditry. Some point to the march as evidence of a cynical generation, while others have criticized Colbert and Stewart as "lousy leaders".
Stewart and Colbert are brilliant comedians, but they don't have a dream much less a solution. What they have done, every night on their shows, is ask a ton of valuable questions. They destroy conventional wisdom and tear into the most ridiculous assumptions in a way that's accessible and palatable to viewers young and old alike. Their shows point out the absurd hilarity of a political process that is embarrassingly broken and a media culture that elevates the trivial to the top of the news cycle all while provoking the viewer to want to scream, What is going on?
But, it's important to note that while they incite us all to ask questions, they never attempt to answer them. They allow politicians and pundits to provide explanations, and -- let's be real -- their explanations have left much to be desired.
Intentional or not, the rally for Fear and/or Sanity falls the weekend before the midterm elections in an election year that's got many wondering if young people will turn out to vote. They point to the rally as evidence of our cynicism and suggest that we all see the political process as a big bad joke. Yet the fact is that, as shown in a recent Rock the Vote poll, that over 83% of young voters continue to believe that our generation has the power to change the country. This generation is growing rapidly, more and more of us are of voting age and our power at the polls is no joke.
Noting this, Campus Progress took on Stephen Colbert's false and preposterous claim that bears are the greatest threat to Colbert Nation in a new video, watch below.
Bears may have the power to ransack your house and eat you, but they don't have the power to vote for the leaders of the free world on Election Day.
Election Day is this Tuesday; visit Vote Again 2010 for more information on how you can be the threat this November 2nd.