Slideshow: On the Ground at the Stewart/Colbert Rally

Your humble DC-based Blaze correspondent braved the crowds to bring you the story straight from the scene of Saturday's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear," hosted by Comedy Central's Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert.

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A few things struck me about Saturday's rally...

1. The crowd was predominantly young people, the vast majority of whom I'd guess were under 30. The oldest attendees I ran into were Baby Boomers and I honestly didn't come across a single senior citizen. Like Stewart joked, the audience was predominantly white. I think the city's local universities contributed a significant portion of today's crowd, with some students easily walking to the rally from their dormitories.

I was very happy to see dedicated volunteers walking up and down the National Mall (and beyond) following the rally, carefully picking up any trash left behind by their fellow rally-goers.

2. Attendees at this rally seemed to have a lot to say about absolutely nothing. Some were there for some free entertainment. Some were there to draw attention to non-mainstream issues, including a number of vocal advocates of the legalization of marijuana. Not only were they advocating, there were, uh, demonstrations -- I caught whiffs of pot smoke a few different times throughout the afternoon.

Some leaned Democrat, some leaned Republican. But the prevalent message of today was that they don't feel represented by either institution.

While most seemed to know where they each fall on the ideological spectrum, no one seemed particularly politically motivated. I interviewed a number of different people at the rally, asking each of them where they were from and why they came to DC for the rally. This is how the majority of those conversations played out:

Q: So what brings you to Washington today?

A: The rally!

Q: Well, duh. But why are you at today's rally?

A: To restore sanity!

Q: But what does that mean? What message are you specifically hoping to send by being here today?

A: People need to stop acting crazy.

Q: Who is acting 'crazy'?

A: Everyone! People need to stop acting crazy.

...and so it went.

Author's note: Special thanks to Jim of Silver Spring, Md., for sharing some photos with us!