0 0 0 0 4B Wedesay Nvebe 3 210//Th Satmet B wasn't as political as others that have taken place on the National Mall. The rally wasn't a call for action. Stewart asked for nothing, telling his audi- ence, "If you want to know why I'm here and what I want from you, I can only assure you this: you have already given it to me. Your presence was what I wanted." Ultimately, Stewart emphasized the importance of bi-partisanship. "Most Americans don't live their lives solely as Democrats, Republi- cans, liberals or conservatives," he told the crowd. "Americans live their lives more as people that are just a lit- tle bit late for something they have to do, often something that they do not want to do, but they do it - impossible things every day that are only made possible by the little reasonable com- promises that we all make." f ASHINGTON - Last Sat- urday, 422 miles from cam- pus, Wolverines gathered on the National Mall in Washing- ton, D.C. in support of moderacy and rationality in national politics. Later reports by CBS News would estimate the crowd at 215,000, but the amica- ble atmosphere made the event seem much smaller. The first time the mass erupted into cheers, the front section turned around when their yells sub- sided. They could hear the reverbera- tion of people blocks away, who were so far back that it took longer for sound to reach them - and at that point we all knew this was much bigger than we had anticipated. Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear illustrates a national desire for mod- eracy. American politics are afflicted by a partisan chasm, where those with different opinions are viewed as ene- mies, creating a gridlock that makes it impossible to move forward in discus- sions of political beliefs. The national media fuels this divide with pundits, sorting everyone and anyone into two distinct categories: liberal and con- servative. But from John Stewart and Stephen Colbert's rally in Washington to students campaigning in Ann Arbor, there is clearly a movement toward the middle in American politics. A MODERATE RALLY An impromptu protest near the Fox News van parked beside the mall was representative of the animosity toward the national media. Stewart and Colbert rolled montages on jum- bo-screens of the titans of punditry - including Glenn Beck, Keith Olber- mannand Bill O'Reilly- makinggross overstatements and apocalyptic politi- cal predictions. While the crowd was armed with signs mocking conserva- tives like Beck, Sarah Palin and other Fox News personalities, Colbert was quick to remind those present of the liberal media's fixation on disaster by giving an award to Anderson Cooper's tight black t-shirt for inciting fear dur- ing every broadcast. Though the majority of the rally echoed the comedy seen on "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," Stewart took the last few minutes of the rally to highlight the media's shortcomings. "The country's 24-hour, political pundit perpetual panic conflictina- tor did not cause our problems, but its existence makes solving them that much harder," he told the crowd. "The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems, bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen. Or they can c"se that magnify- ing glass to light ants on fire, and then perhaps host a week of shows on the dangerous, unexpected flaming ant epidemic. "If we amplify everything, we hear nothing." This message incited cheers from throughout the mall. One supporter was Public Policy junior Tommy Held, one of the many University students who made the trek to hear Colbert and Stewart's message. "I've been a long-time fan of Jon Stewart," Held said while preparing for his trip to the rally. "This is sort of the nexus of my interest in politics, my interest in comedy and satire and sort of what the rally's all about: toning it down." There was a clear University pres- ence in the diverse crowd. Stewart noted that the audience was a perfect sampling of the American popula- tion, with people of all ages, races and religions within which an occasion- al representation of maize and blue stood out among the mass. A man in a Michigan baseball cap stood in the packed crowd a dozen yards away, a girl donning a Michigan flag as a cape crossed streets a block away and a man in a Michigan hoodie passed by on the metro escalator. LSA senior Christina Bertrand and seven of her friends made the trip to Washington last weekend, but it was much rougher than they had antici- pated. Their plans for lodging fell through, they received only a few hours of sleep and fought dehydration. Still, Bertrand insists that "the rally made everything worth it." And that positive attitude was seen throughout the National Mall during Stewart and Colbert's rally, which was packed, yet still full of polite and courteous par- ticipants. The weather was unexpectedly warm so a man modified his sign from a political message to "Does anyone have any sun block?" and moments later I was passing a bottle in his direc- tion. After the rally, the crowd was tired and hungry, but we made way for a man with a stroller to leave first. The lines for hot dog vendors were long and food was in short supply, but when I joined the line, the couple in front of me gently told me there were no pret- zels or water left. "I was really happy that everyone at the rally seemed to be really friendly and respectful," said LSA junior James Janisse. "I mean, it was ridiculously packed. You couldn't even move ... "he country' S24-hour, pc pe rpetua l pa ni Cconfl iCtin a cause our problems, but it' makes solving them that rr but no one ever yelled or got mad. If I stepped on someone's foot, I apolo- gized and they didn't care. It was such a good atmosphere justbecause I think we were all there for the same reason." Janisse believed so much in Stewart and Colbert's cause that he actually organized one of many charter buses that brought people to the rally. He had been following the rally before its announcement when it originated on the Internet. Members of the social news website Reddit had requested that Stewart and Colbert host a rally. According to Janisse, "They started a donation to a charity to show them how serious they were and actu- ally raised over $200,000, and after that (Stewart and Colbert) started the whole 'we're going to have an announcement' thing." "I was going to drive down there or fly down there and then on Reddit I saw they had a board set up for people wanting to carpool down there," he said. "I saw someone had the idea for a charter bus and I was originally going to get on that one, but I figured I could just put my own together." lItical The week before the rally, tor did not Janisse had 52 people con- 's eXIStence firmed to his bus, only seven uch hard er.' of whom he knew prior to the rally. Many students, like Bertrand, couldn't pass this opportunity up. "I was just able to go," Bertrand said. "Some of my friends wanted to and my parents let me borrow their van to lug everyone around. I just really wanted to go because I love John Stewart." With comedic interludes and musi- cal guests including Kid Rock, Ozzie Osborne and Yusef Islam, the rally A MOVEMENT TO THE MIDDLE? Stewart and Colbert's rally repre- sents a trend among voters. Accord- ing to a September study from the Pew Research Center, Independents are the largest group of voters in this election, claiming 37 percent of registered vot- ers. This represents one of the largest groups of Independents in the past 20 years, and is is up from 34 percent two years ago. The study also pointed to the fact that more than half of current Indepen- dents used to identify with a political party at some point in the past five years. Twenty-three percent have identified as Democrat, 22 percent as Republican and nine percent as both. Recent studies have also shown a growing shift in political iden- tification among young voters. According to an October study by the Pew Research Center, 56 per- cent of voters under the age of 30 identify with the Democratic party, down from 62 percent in 2008, while 36 percent identify as Republican up 6 percent since 2008. The rally's effects on the midterm elections have been the subject of debate ever since its announce- ment. Assistant professor of organizational stud- ies and political science Michael Heaney and Georgetown doctoral candidate in government Andrea Mayer surveyed 325 people from the crowd to find that 46 percent of rally attendees believe the rally affected yesterday's election. However, the fact that the rally wasn't organized by a political party could have a large impact on whether or not the moderate voices were heard. "It depends on if Washington acknowledges that it happened and acknowledges the point of it, which I'm really not sure if they will or not because it's Washington," Janisse said of the rally's impact on the elec- tions. "If they do, I think that it shows that there are a lot of people out there who are more in the middle and less extreme." ANN ARBOR GOES CENTER Ann Arbor and the University have long fallen under the media's leftist label. Lecture halls are littered with students in their College Democrats t-shirts, students patrol the corners of the Diag armed with petitions urging sustainable and green practices and an annual protest of marijuana laws is celebrated as a campus-wide holiday. But when you dig a little deeper, you'll find that we're not living in the hotbed of liberal activity we think we are. "I would say people tend to think of the Michigan campus as very liberal, and the majority is liberal, but I defi- nitely think there's more moderates than you think. My friends are moder- ate and a lot of them are thinkingabout probably voting for Snyder," Held said before yesterday's election. Bertrand also doesn't believe the campus is as liberal as often depicted. "I think we're about 60-40," she said. "I don't think it's as bad as most people think." The College Republicans is the most visible group of conservative students on campus. The group, which has been active since 1892, lobbies for conser- vative interests and campaigns for Republican candidates. The group's membership alone serves as a testa- ment to the large conservative popula- tion on campus. "We have over 2,000 people on our listserv and we have a group of, I'd say about 150 that show up regularly at meetings," said LSA sophomore and College Republicans Vice Chair Brian Koziara. "So it's a fairly large group. Depending on who we bring in as a speaker, the numbers will be higher or lower, but we do have a very active and engaged core." Rick Snyder's successful campaign has certainly challenged the idea of Ann Arbor's liberal foundation. An Ann Arbor native and University alum, the Governor elect garnered 50.51 per- cent of the vote in Washtenaw county as of 11:53 'p.m. Tuesday night with 43.75 percent of the precincts counted, This support for a Republican candidate is recently unprec- edented in a county where 70 percent of its residents voted for Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election and 68 percent voted for Governor Jennifer Granholm in 2006. Similarly, United States Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.) has faced a tough- er campaign than in recent election cycles. After garnering 87.80 percent of the Washtenaw county vote in 2006 and 73.48 percent in 2008, Dingell received just 65.7 percent of Washt- enaw county's vote as of 11:53 p.m. Tuesday night with 43.75 percent of the precincts counted. Koziara attributes these figures to a shifting mentality about economic spending. "I do think that the conservative fiscal message has won. I think that's the reason Ann Arbor is trending away from its previously blue roots," Kozi- ara said. "I think a lot of people are starting to wake up and realize that this election is all about the economic issues, the fiscal issues, and I think that even Democrats in Ann Arbor can agree with that." Furthermore, these historically left-leaning numbers aren't necessar- ily a characteristic of the student body, many of whom vote absentee. In fact, Held believes it's not the students who are liberals so much as the city's year- long residents. "I'm actually from Ann Arbor. I went to Pioneer so I've seen local elec- tions for a while now," he said. "So I would say the people in the city, the townies, who actually vote ... on the whole, vote Democratic." And while the media and cam- paign ads can sometimes make gross exaggerations about the state of poli- tics, many students on campus have a healthy amount of hope for the future. "We got kind of lucky," Janisse said of the gubernatorial race. "Either way, whoever wins, it's not going to be hor- rible." The numbers certainly show a recent shift to the center, and it's clear the student body doesn't disregard the conservative population. When See BIPARTISANSHIP. Page 8B ----- FROM TOP LEFT: "Daily Show" host Jon Stewart; "The Colbert Report" host Stephen Colbert; Colbert standing in front of a large puppet of himself; rally attendees finish their signs; some of the 215,000 at the rally on Sat- urday.