Convoy 

If you liked Smokey and the Bandit (1, 2, and 3) then you had to love 1978’s  CONVOY

“THERE MUST BE A MAINSTREAM MEDIA NEWS BLACKOUT – “GOOD BUDDY!!!”  WHERE’S THE WALL TO WALL COVERAGE OF – THE CONVOY!!!!!”

Ottawa

In life and in politics, there’s something called “a window of opportunity”.  It’s a simple concept:  there’s a “magic time” when all of the trends point to a single action.  For the fortunate, that manage to do the right thing at the right time; they can change the world.

The Canadian Truck protests were a prime example of the “hitting” the moment.  A small number (ten percent?) of Canadian truckers were furious with the vaccine mandates required to cross the US border.  The mandates were on both sides, both Canadian and US policies.  But the truckers protested the Canadian rules, by driving their trucks into the national capital of Ottawa, and paralyzing the town.   They wouldn’t leave.  And Justin Trudeau, the Prime Minister, was loath to use offensive police action to remove them.  So the Canadian truckers got a world stage in the streets of Ottawa and at the border crossings.

Trudeau

Many felt that Trudeau should have acted sooner, and ordered the police and the tow trucks into Ottawa.  But perhaps Trudeau realized that the truckers were already “late”.  Their “window” was closing.  The science was clear that the Omicron variant of Covid was burning through and burning out.  Soon the infection, hospitalization and death rates would drop as quickly as they went up.  In short, the longer Trudeau waited, the less the truckers had to complain about.  

The Canadian truckers hung around for almost a month.  Finally Trudeau declared a national emergency, and with very little violence, the vehicles were cleared and “normal” life was restored.

Eastbound and Down

But the trucking protests resonated in the United States. Much of the Canadian trucker financing already came from US sources.  Canadian trucks even had pro-Trump signage.  If it worked in Canada, a country that pretty much went along with all of the Covid protocols, then it should be HUGE in the United States where Covid wasn’t seen as a public health issue at all.  It was completely politicized, divided along partisan lines.  Americans who erroneously felt that Donald Trump won the Presidency, were generally against every public health measure to control Covid.

And there is a long tradition of trucking protests, so big, that in the late 1970’s they made a major motion picture about it – CONVOY!  It  had big-time actors, with Kris Kristofferson, Ali McGraw, and even Ernest Borgnine.  It was about a “protest” of local traffic controls that became a national truck protest,  and it resonated with an America that was fatigued from the Vietnam War protests, hippies, and the upheaval of the Watergate Era.  We went from anti-war protest rallies and songs about martyred students (Four Dead in Ohio) to disco, Staying Alive, Smokey and the Bandit (1,2, and 3, the one with the elephant)  and finally CONVOY!  

Grievances

It was a perfect fit.  Some Americans were frustrated with the Covid mandates – demanding personal “FREEDOM” from masks and vaccines.  And they were truly angry that Joe Biden won the Presidential election.  They longed for a simpler time, when issues like diversity and pandemics weren’t problems —  the “good old days”, like the late 1970’s.  So a trucker protest, starting in California and unifying the entire nation as it crossed to Washington DC seemed like a perfect “vehicle” (hah!) for their grievances.

The trucks began in Adelanto, California, outside of Los Angeles, and slowly (about 350 miles a day) made their way across the country.  There were ultimately about 150 trucks, and many more pickups and cars that joined up the procession as it moved across the American interstate highway system.  The convoy was well coordinated with local and state police, and politely avoided disrupting the city centers.  

And there was support.  From many suburban and rural overpasses and exits, small groups gathered with American flags, Trump signs , and “Don’t Tread on Me” banners to show their agreement with the honking parade.  Donated feasts were laid out at the overnight rest stops by Convoy “groupies”.

Too Late

The problem for the convoy organizers, was that the “window” was already closed.  Literally as they crossed the country, state after state dropped mandatory mask mandates for their cities and schools.  That wasn’t in reaction to the Convoy, but in response to the science.  Omicron was burning out, and the mandates were no longer necessary.

Regular media stopped covering the Convoy as a political statement, and dealt with them more as a traffic hazard.  And then, Russia invaded Ukraine. All of the media “oxygen” went out of the room.

The “Convoy” is still out there, staying at the Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland, about ninety minutes west of Washington, DC.  Sunday through Tuesday, they lined up and drove I-70 east to the I-70/I-270 split to Washington.  Then onto the DC outer-belt, Interstate 495, for a sixty-four mile loop around the Capital.  Wednesday it rained, and they stayed in Hagerstown.

But they didn’t go “into DC”.  They made great efforts to prevent the unending traffic nightmare of the DC beltway from getting worse.  And their issues:  mask mandates and Covid restrictions, continued to disappear.  There’s nothing more frustrating; they missed their “window”.  The “Convoy” is irrelevant.

Below the Fold

The Washington Post moved the “Convoy” story from the front page on Sunday, to “below the fold” in the Metro section on Wednesday.  “Convoy” leaders met with Republican Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, to discuss government mandates.  But that discussion becomes more “academic” by the day.  Even the Washington Times, a conservative newspaper sympathetic to the “cause”, had only a five sentence article buried in their metro section on Wednesday morning (Wash Times).

Convoy organizers face a choice.  They can complete their week-long protest, circling the DC outer-belt with faint views of the Washington Monument and the Capitol building, then head back off into the countryside.  Or, they can try to “raise the stakes” and force their column into town, hoping to circle the National Mall.  That will get them back on the “front page”, as a traffic hazard and disruption.  But it won’t change their misfortune – their window of opportunity is firmly closed.

“Ten-Four Good Buddy – time to put the hammer down and head for the barn.  See you on the flip-side”.