There have been demonstrations against the COVID regulations like lockdowns, mask mandates and vaccines all over the world. Up until recently, these have had negligible impact. That is because the government officials who ignored people when issuing these regulations continued to ignore those who rebelled. Australia has responded in the worst conceivable way and may even be risking a civil war. But up until now, governments have been successful in keeping ridiculous and unpopular regulations in play. The only weapon they needed was fear, facilitated by irresponsible reporting in the MSM. People were genuinely terrified because of reports by hysterical news broadcasters who were all drinking the same KoolAid. People who dared point out the obvious problems were quickly silenced as spreading dangerous misinformation.
All that changed when a bunch of truck drivers got together for a rally in Ottawa, Canada. At first the media and the government tried to ignore them. But that is no longer possible, because they have brought traffic and commerce to a halt in big parts of Ottawa. Now they have shut down the Ambassador bridge going from Windsor, Ontario to Detroit. That shuts down a significant amount of the commerce between the U.S. and Canada.
The response by Prime Minister Trudeau borders on insanity. First, he ran away and hid. Then he called the protestors a “fringe element.” Then he called them racists carrying confederate flags and Nazis. Unfortunately for him, when the media showed up on scene, they found mostly a party mood complete with pizza ovens. People all over Canada and the U.S. are showing support. GoFundMe collected tons of money and then tried to confiscate it. That is more likely to hurt GoFundMe than the truckers. It would be very unwise to underestimate the number of people who support those truckers, and they are cheering them on, if not sending money.
Either these truckers give up, or Trudeau takes drastic action. But it is going to be exceedingly difficult for the police to move all those trucks and those truckers certainly sound determined. If Trudeau to take drastic action like when Truman threated to draft all the railroad workers into the army, it is unlikely to work. The railroad workers worked for only a few employers; these guys are often independents who don’t work for anyone. If he tries to call in the military, claiming this is an insurrection, that could be catastrophic. So far, Trudeau has been focused on proving himself right, in demanding actions proven to not work. His lack of the leadership ability is becoming more apparent that Joe Biden’s senility.
It has been obvious, from the start, that many, if not most, of the COVID restrictions were unwarranted and not really based on science. Now everyone knows that the lockdowns, the mask mandates, and the vaccine mandates did not and will not work. People all over the world are so done with this. Government officials forgot something really important. If you are going to demand people follow your guidelines, you better make sure they work. They didn’t work. They not only didn’t stop COVID, but they may also have prolonged it.
There are now reports of truckers heading to LA to help with the Super Bowl traffic. That could become exciting. Does anyone really have faith in the leadership ability of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to deal with this?. Does anyone think the NFL can manage this?
The real problem is that those truckers in Canada have figured out that they can literally shut the country down. No government can survive without consent of the governed. Some governments have managed to maintain control through brute force, but it is hard to imagine brute force being used against those truckers. If Trudeau tries to handle the truckers like the Chinese Communists handled Tiananmen Square, he will soon learn the difference between Canada and China.
As for me, right now, I just want them to keep on not-trucking until the people temporarily in charge of our government start listening. We got us a CONVOY!
TDM