The convoy protest, applauded by right-wing media as a ‘freedom protest,’ is an economic and security issue now. Slash the tires, empty gas tanks, arrest the drivers, and move the trucks. Trust me, I will not run out of ways to make this hurt: cancel their insurance; suspend their drivers’ licenses; prohibit any future regulatory certification for truckers, etc. Have we learned nothing? These things fester when there are no consequences.
Juliette Kayyem (Harvard professor and Obama DHS staffer)
Two years into the pandemic, one side effect is obvious: it has impaired the ability of self-described liberals to tell right from wrong. Two years ago, CNN described arson and vandalism in Kenosha (WI) as “mostly peaceful protests.” Last summer, the Biden DOJ described moms confronting school boards as “domestic terrorists.” Now, Justin Trudeau condemns working-class protestors as “violent and dangerous.” The root problem is group ideology subordinating individual humanity.
Ideology should not move journalists to ignore the crimes of arson, looting and vandalism, an attorney general to order the surveillance of moms, or a prime minister to allege COVID protests are “sedition.” Canada’s Freedom Convoy begs Americans to consider what is a legitimate grievance, when civil disobedience becomes sedition, and whose authority rules a democracy.
The legitimacy of the Convoy hangs on its grievance: coerced vaccination. Trudeau mandated quarantines for un-vaccinated truckers whenever they re-enter from the USA. Even the vaccinated among us must now admit there’s cause for their skepticism, because Omicron has cut harmlessly through companies and families like a hot knife through butter. Further, American states, Canadian provinces, and European countries have now relaxed their COVID policies.
The PM said Monday, “Canadians have the right to protest, to disagree with their government, and to make their voices heard. We’ll always protect that right.” So, can he claim this civil disobedience is “sedition” now? Already, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Quebec and Prince Edward Island have announced mandate roll-backs, and a Liberal MP has accused Trudeau of “dividing Canadians.”
Voters are the authority in Canada’s democracy. Trudeau made vaccines a “wedge issue” in the 2021 election, and got 32.6% of the popular vote. Now, based on his handling of the trucker protests, only 16% of Canadians would “want to vote for him because of how he has dealt with the situation” (source: Maru Public Opinion). In short, the PM has no mandate, no support, and no moral authority.
There are lessons for Democrats here; civil disobedience (be it blocking intersections in Ottawa or confronting electors in the US Capitol) is macro-messaging the governors should heed. Trudeau gave scant notice until the Convoy disrupted life in Ottawa, and has yet to speak to the Convoy’s leaders. He’s made them the enemy, saying their traffic jams will “bankrupt businesses” and their GoFundMe page had US donors “funding sedition” in Canada.
There are lessons for the GOP; don’t let ideologues reduce you to evil stereotypes. Despite maple-leaf flags and signs touting individual liberty and right to work, Trudeau claimed the Freedom Convoy was “not who Canada, who Canadians are” because he saw only a “few people shouting” and ”flying a Confederate flag” (sounds like an Ole Miss home game).
There are lessons for covid-weary parents and service workers; big media now speaks for big government. MSNBC reported from Ottawa, “I’ve heard there is QAnon supporters in the crowd and Neo Nazis in the streets.” For the straight scoop, read Rupa Supramanya’s report from Common Sense (hint: these are tired and angry working-class folks).
Virginia parents learned about identity-based lessons plans in their kids’ schools mostly on right-wing media, until Democrat Terry McAuliffe sided with school boards in an election debate and riled reporters by storming out of a TV interview. Still, most of the big media coverage (I followed it) prior to Election Day focused on how McAuliffe might “damage the party before the mid-terms.” No way the DOJ-NSBA “domestic terrorist” deal makes the news, if not for red-state school board associations leaking it.
CNN has exemplified ideology bias for years, spreading the Russia Dossier, smearing a Catholic school boy in a MAGA hat, reporting obvious arson in Kenosha (WI) as “mostly peaceful” protests (see vidcap below) and claiming the (still) non-violent Freedom Convoy is “violent” and “dangerous.”
No wonder CNN is collapsing like a house of cards or that, after the summer of 2020 riots, 64% of Americans said “cities were under siege,” 56% wanted the government to get the “unrest under control,” and 54% said “people should arm themselves to protect private property during protests” (source: USA TODAY).
If a newspaper picture is worth a thousand words to an electorate, then streaming video is worth a million. And crackpot tweets might be worth a trillion, because self-described liberals keep self-reporting their top-down arrogance and far-left ideology. Back to Our Gal in Truckistan, Juliette Kayyem, author of the opening tweet. Are you OK with her guiding security at DHS or teaching future leaders at Harvard?
I hope not, because her words read like SS marching orders (“trust me, I will not run out of ways to make this hurt”). At least she asks, “have we learned nothing yet?” Sure, like today’s right-wing media has sympathy – not scorn – for the middling folks who can’t work from home, truck drivers know not to “slash tires the tires” and “empty gas tanks” before they “move the trucks,” and don’t tweet while smoking pot.
No wonder she deleted the tweet and walked it back (see below).
If her first tweet was a call for responsible government, thank God she’s not teaching English Comp at Harvard. Small solace, because she IS the Obama-Biden ideology. You know, the crowd that weaponized the IRS, declared they would not get vaccines on Trump’s watch, and nominates white dudes who party in blackface. If that doesn’t scare you, then nothing else will.
