WASHINGTON — Is it a way to improve the nation’s political discourse? A way to tip some votes just before the election? Or just a big outdoor comedy show?
Organizers insist that Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert’s “Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear” on the National Mall today isn’t about politics.
But that hasn’t dampened the expectations of thousands of fans and advocacy groups seeking to rekindle some of the voter enthusiasm seen in 2008, particularly among young adults.
For many of them, that civic engagement would translate to a boost for Democrats — a calculation President Barack Obama bet on this week when he became the first sitting president to appear on Stewart’s “The Daily Show” on TV’s Comedy Central.
“This rally is attracting a lot of attention, and it could have an impact because the target demographic of young people who tend to vote Democratic needs more mobilization to vote than do older people,” said Scott Keeter, director of survey research at the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.
A Pew poll last month found 41 percent of Stewart’s fans identify themselves as Democrats, compared with 38 percent independents and 14 percent Republicans.
His audience also tends to be younger than for many other cable programs, a key segment because adults 18-29 are half as likely than those 30 and older to vote.
“Any shift in a Democratic or Republican direction coming from a change in the national mood, from whatever outside force, could tip a lot of races because they seem to be so balanced on a razor’s edge at this point,” Keeter said.
Organizing for America, Obama’s political operation based at Democratic National Committee headquarters, is setting up a “Phone Bank for Sanity” after the rally to urge people to vote Tuesday.
Groups planning to enlist supporters at the event include NARAL Pro-Choice America and backers of California’s Proposition 19 to legalize marijuana.
“The vitriol and hatred toward our president and Democrats, it has become so extreme that it kind of scares me,” said Margaret Espaillat, 49, of Orlando, Fla., who hopes the rally will improve the political tone and galvanize Democrats.
She plans to attend the rally with her three sons who are in college and her husband, a U.S. Army colonel.
“We’ve never done anything like this before,” she said. “But I think in this environment we need to show some real love of our country . . . and to rub shoulders with other nice, normal people, I hope.”
There are plans for satellite rallies in Los Angeles, Chicago, Denver and Honolulu.
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