Cause for Embarrassment

Since I have been in Spain major political demonstrations have occurred in both Spain (the entire country went on strike for 1 day) and in France (this protest lasted over the course of several days and required governmental military intervention).  The cause for both of these protests was ultimately, the dire economic situations both countries are facing and their expectation that their governments act in their best interest (budget issues, specifically pension ages).  I am very impressed and admire very much the political discussion that occurs in both of these European countries. The people here have expectations from their government (that they meet their basic needs, which does in fact include health care) and in turn it is the expectation that people be civilly involved.  When the government acts in the interest of themselves or large corporations - the people respond.  From what I have observed, complacency does not exist here.

Today in Washington D.C. was the "Rally to Restore Sanity", a rally sponsored by Steven Colbert and John Stewart.  I generally despise both of these men, as they are both in the business of inaction.  Rather than taking action or using their fame or money to actually incite social change, they simply mock it.  They invite guests on their show and then make jokes about how silly the democratic and republic parties are (mostly focusing on the republicans) and though politics are the topic of discussion, they don't actually say anything.  They don't take stances for or against anything as they are simply too cool.  So they've decided that extremists in America (i.e. Glenn Beck) receive too much media attention and so they are having a rally to give voice to everyone else, i guess (the stated intention has been difficult to pinpoint).  So instead of bringing people together for a specific given cause, they are coming together to mock people with causes (albeit extreme), i guess?  To me, this appears to be nothing more than a media stunt for the two masterminds involved, as there is a "pre-show" and a "show", which include performances by John Legend and Cheryl Crow.  How can a civic protest have performances and merchandise (yes, there's merch)?  This is baffling to me!  Why must civic engagement in the United States be about anything and everything other than social change!!  This is an absolute cause for shame and embarrassment.  Is this all we think of ourselves and expect from our government?  Are we more concerned with purchasing merch and listening to John Legend than demanding necessities from our government?  To me this is not a joke and it's not funny; it's just sad.