By Scott LaBove ’11, News Columnist

Haven’t we all been just a tad too insane lately? The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart certainly thinks so.

Jon Stewart organized the Rally to Restore Sanity in response to Glen Beck’s Restoring Honor rally in August.   Glenn Beck, the Fox News Channel sensation who has garnered a lot of strict followers and conversely, vehement disapproval, was the inspiration for Jon Stewart’s rally.

Stewart’s rally was planned to show that people can have differing views.  Stewart emphasized that people can differ politically or socially, and still be able to discuss the important issues in a rational, level-headed manner.  The rally was heavily publicized, and many of Stewart’s dedicated followers showed up.  During the week leading up to the rally, Stewart broadcast his show from Washington D.C., interviewing President Obama on one of the nights.

Though Stewart focused on politics the week before the rally, the rally itself was mildly political.  Junior Molly Alter was fortunate to attend the event.  She commented that “Stewart’s agenda was not political; he just wanted people to enjoy themselves and have a good time.”

One of Stewart’s goals was to bring people together, and he certainly succeeded.  The rally drew an estimated 215,000 people to the National Mall.  The rally only lasted for a couple of hours, with most of time devoted to musical guests and comedy routines from Stewart and Stephen Colbert.  Alter expressed that she “really liked the overall relaxed tone of the rally.”  There were no prolific messages stated, and no real agenda. It was a day of music, comedy, and congregation.

However, many pundits believe that Stewart tried to equate the extreme left to the extreme right and claimed instead that one could not make such a comparison.  Recently, the extreme right seems to provoke more national controversy, but the extreme left also evokes its fair share of disagreement.  Stewart denied such claims, sticking to his basic message that the purpose of the rally was just to give a voice to those who are not at the political extremes.

Besides the actual events at the rally, the energy of the crowd is what Molly says “will resonate in her mind the most.”  She was lucky enough to be right by the stage and experienced firsthand “the electricity that was flying amidst such a joyous crowd.”  Though the rally might not cause some new political party to form and may not redirect America from its alleged“insanity,” if nothing else was accomplished, at least 215,000 people had a good wholesome time for a couple of hours on a Sunday.