US version of the Freedom Convoy organizing for March launch.

 

Truckers protest in Ottawa. Politico/Getty.

An US version of the Freedom Convoy, which has been effective in protesting vaccine mandates in Canada, will be launching on March 4th. Politico. The convoy will start in California and make its way to Washington DC. The movement is being organized on social media and people are discussing how best to shut down cities with trucks. There are also rival convoys being organized which have different starting points and organizers. Similar movements have been launched in Europe, New Zealand and Australia. 

My Comment:

This was pretty much inevitable after the major success the Canadian Freedom Convoy achieved. Though they have not had total success they have gotten politicians to pull back on mandates. They have also exposed Prime Minster Justin Trudeau as a coward and may have even destroyed his political careers. 

The movement has exerted enormous pressure on the Canadian government. They have shut down Ottawa but more importantly they have put a stranglehold on the Canadian economy. Already car manufacturing plants are saying they are slowing production just because of the border crossing protests. 

Using the big rigs in this way is an extremely effective tactic. These trucks do not go anywhere unless the drivers want them to and the government has limited options in how to deal with them. Tow companies don't have the capacity to move them and even if they did most of them refuse to do so. And since the protests have remained peaceful cracking down backfires terribly. 

So can these tactics work here in the US or in other countries? In theory it can. Like I said, the government has limited options on what they can do and these tactics are hugely powerful and exert enormous pressure on the government. If the convoys can stay organized and funded they can and will force Biden to stop his vaccine mandates or even force him to resign. 

But the US convoy has some problems that the Canadians don't have. For one the right in the United States is absolutely paranoid of government infiltration and with good reason. It is widely believed that the January 6th protest was successfully derailed by the FBI and everyone will be afraid that it will happen again with these convoys as well. People smell a trap and may not want to risk it. 

Another problem is that I think it would be very easy to derail the convoy from it's purpose. The Canadian Freedom Convoy has been very on message for the whole protest, they don't care anything else than Coronavirus restrictions. I fear that any American protest would be derailed by American politics. 

Finally, I don't think there is the level of anger against the government for restrictions and mandates here in the United States. For most red states it's largely a non-issue after the worker mandate was quashed by the Supreme Court. And though my state is more of a purple state than a red one, Wisconsin hasn't had any meaningful mandates since last year.  

With that being said, even though our situation is better than Canada, the anger against the government is real. People are utterly disgusted with the Biden administration and even if they aren't personally affected by the mandates. If anything Americans might be more upset with Biden than the Canadians are with Justin Trudeau. 

This, of course, assumes that the Coronavirus is even relevant in March. Governments at the state and national level are pulling back on their mandates. Some of that is due to these protests but much of it is because it just isn't any justification anymore. For the vast majority of people Omicron poses next to no threat at all. The pandemic is all but over.