Stewart and Colbert's DC Rally Staged for Comedy, Not Politics

 

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The atmosphere in the crowd was one of comedic energy, with attendees carrying signs saying "Relax," "Freaking Out for Freedom," and "God Save Us from Ourselves."

Ginger Louerde, who traveled to the nation's capitol for the first time with her 10-year-old son, said she came to tell lawmakers and Americans to "stop shouting and play nice."

"I'm very concerned about what's happening on the right and about how they're pushing, pushing so hard against individual freedoms and I want to say, wait a minute, those of us on the left want to have a voice as well," Louerde, 42, told ABC News.

Samantha Desmarais, 23, said she drove from Rhode Island Friday night with her friends just to attend the rally.

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"I hope to achieve sanity. We need sanity in the country. Things have gotten out of control. We need to fix things," said Desmarais, who wore a "Vote Sanity" sticker. "There's so much hatred and animosity ... and all this stuff is going on that does not need to happen. We need to come together as one and we need to reinstate our sanity, think positive, set some real goals and stop fighting each other."

Many attendees said they hoped the rally, taking place in the nation's capitol just days before the election, would ignite enthusiasm. In what has become a divisive election, Democrats face the prospect of losing control of the House and key Senate seats.

Crowds from around the country traveled to Washington to attend the event, similar to Beck's rally in August. The Huffington Post chartered 200 buses to bring 10,000 people to the event and several buses were reportedly still on their way even after the rally started. More than 220,000 people had RSVPed on the rally's Facebook page.