The "Freedom Convoy" Falls Apart; Accomplishes Nothing

https://www.politicususa.com/2022/03/27/dc-trucker-convoy-falls-apart-as-their-leader-runs-away.html

Here's a key quote from the article:

"The group has no leadership, no goal, and no plan for an actual protest.  They are a group of angry Trump supporters hanging out and marinating their resentments. The truckers should realize they have the freedom to go home. They have accomplished nothing but peeing themselves, assaulting bikers and driving in circles.

The protest that the Republicans thought would mobilize voter anger at Democrats and give them momentum heading into the midterms has been a dud." 

Peeing their pants?  Yep.  As you read that Politics USA article, click those links for explanations.  The tweets are very entertaining.  I think, in much of the rhetoric coming from the tweets and other social media comments of those involved, and some of their supporters, you can see exactly why the protest failed.  Ignorance reigns supreme among this group.  Driving in circles around the Capitol Beltway has not yet achieved their goal, whatever it was.  The numbers of truckers and vehicles necessary to achieve their goal, whatever it was, never materialized and now many of them, including the leader, are leaving.

They got the idea from the Canadian truckers who clogged up downtown Ottawa for a while and made a nuisance of themselves.  Of course, their protest did nothing except make a lot of people in Ottawa angry.  It did not get a single COVID mandate repealed.  It made Canada's Prime Minister even more popular, and conservatives less so.  

And politically, as the Politics USA article says, this has been "a dud."  I think there are several reasons for this.  First of all, the main reason given for this whole convoy idea was to protest COVID mandates.  Almost all of the mandates are from states, not the federal government, so trying to make that kind of change by clogging up traffic in Washington, DC is pointless.  None of them are permanent.  They are all aimed at reducing the death rate and the infection rates of a pandemic and as they have succeeded in doing so--and their success can't be denied factually and scientifically--and as the pandemic wanes, the mandates have been lifted.  Why protest something that has been successful and isn't in effect any more?  Unless you are too ignorant to understand how that works.  

But I think another reason is that there really aren't all that many people who think the mandates regarding COVID are all that bad.  Over 70% of the population has been vaccinated.  Most people realize that the rapid distribution of vaccinations has been one of the biggest mitigating factors in reducing the COVID pandemic in this country and elsewhere, and the scientific evidence proving the effectiveness of mask mandates is overwhelming.  All of the resistance and opposition was just Trumpian nonsense, and frankly, there aren't as many of those kinds of people around as he, or his supporters, want you to think. 

The venue they chose wasn't exactly prime country for an extremist right wing Trumpie rallying point either.  Even rural areas of Maryland are predominantly Democratic, and so are the counties of Northern Virginia.  In the city of Washington, the only Republicans are people from outside the city who live there and work for Republican legislators or think tanks or the GOP.  The city is overwhelmingly Democrat, and not just the African American population.  Maybe, in a place like Dothan, Alabama or Traveler's Rest, South Carolina, people might line the overpasses and cheer the Freedom Convoy on, but the few scattered supporters around the beltway got bored after just a couple of days of seeing trucks driving under, but not much of a protest or a traffic jam or a nuisance. 

A Mid-Term Rallying Point

If this was a rallying point for Republicans going into the mid-terms, then I wish for them the same level of enthusiasm and success as this trucker rally generated.  

Griping about "tyranny" and hollering about "freedom" while a million of their fellow Americans have died in just two years from this deadly virus is callous and uncaring, selfish and ignorant.  Continuing to gripe while real tyranny is forced on the Ukrainian people is even more of the same.  Is this what Trumpism stands for?  Then those of us who have committed to rooting it out by voting it out are doing the right thing. 

I would like for one of these anti-vax, anti-mask protesters to point to one constitutional right of theirs that has been interferred with as a result of COVID restrictions.  And if you're vaccinated for polio, or measles, or small pox, you have no argument. 

I'm one of those who holds the opinion that the Democrats are going to reverse the trend and actually gain seats in both houses during the mid-terms.  Yes, the President's job approval rating is still a shade south of 50%, but the Republicans are clearly running on all of this Trumpie social garbage, and none of it has anywhere close to 50% support. And if they're going to run on Trumpie social garbage, then it is worth noting that Trump's unfavorable number is a solid 65%.  Run on that, then, and see how that works out for you.