Minnesotans got in on the action at the National Mall in Washington on Saturday to witness firsthand Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear."
Wearing a Minnesota Twins sweatshirt, Burnsville resident John Orr, 48, said he wanted to see the Stewart-Colbert rally in part because he was upset with the discourse from the 24-hour cable networks, which Stewart and Colbert routinely mock.
"Every night I enjoy that it lightens up what otherwise depresses me," Orr said of the comedians' shows.
Orr's wife Andrea said she hoped the rally would help people return to a more reasonable reference point when it came to politics. "I need less Bachmann," she said, referring to Rep. Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican who's transformed into a national figure for her outspoken views and rhetoric.
Michael Manansala, a junior political science major at Macalester College, took advantage of the school's fall break to travel to Washington along with a classmate and a Macalester alumnus.
Manansala, who considers himself politically engaged, said he came to Washington because he likes Jon Stewart and he felt the divide between conservatives and liberals was being blown out of proportion.
"It's a way for the rest of the 85 percent of America to say that we're not as divided as everybody portrays us to be," he said. "I think what Jon Stewart said was really important, that we are getting along, we are functioning, and that 'this is not the end times, it's the hard times.'"
While Manansala got separated from his fellow Minnesota rally-goers amid the tens of thousands in attendance, afterward he summed up the costumes, the signs, the people and the rally by saying: "It was a good time."
