Dispatch from the Convoy

The People’s Convoy is the best show in town right now, if you can manage to get any information about it. The media ignores it, even as it daily grows. Like the song says, “The revolution will not be televised.” You almost have to be on the route and see it with your own eyes to know about it. And it’s an awesome sight. One 18-wheeler is impressive; hundreds of them, nose to tail, are stunning. 

While the Canadian truckers’ convoy was at its height last month, Americans began planning multiple convoys of their own. The People’s Convoy has emerged as the front-runner, with its emphasis on organization, safety, observance of law, and support from Children’s Health Defense, The Unity Project (Drs. McCullough and Malone, among others) and the Front-Line Critical Care Alliance, some of the people I’ve come to trust most over the last two years. 

The People’s Convoy rolled out from Adelanto, California, on February 23, and they made it to the center of the country four days later, where I caught up with the line of big rigs, RVs, pickup trucks, passenger cars, and motorcycles. This is a tribe united in purpose: to end mandates and call our supposedly representative government to serve the people again. Their mantra is “They serve us.”

The published plans of this convoy were to disperse at the D.C. boundaries on Saturday, March 5, without entering the city, where new barricades had been erected weeks ahead of time and National Guard deployed. The possibility of ambush was too high to be ignored, and the organizers’ first priority is the safety of the truckers. 

But they didn’t disperse. They’ve been roosting overnight at the Hagerstown Speedway since Friday. For three days now, they’ve saddled up in the morning, fueled the rigs, and dropped down to circle the D.C. Beltway. Saturday and Sunday were like dress rehearsals, with little traffic, but Monday was the Show. Staying precisely within the law, they occupied two lanes, rolling well below the speed limit, honking to those on the bridges with flags and signs. They looped the city twice, without entering, and then peacefully returned to the Speedway in Hagerstown, a 60-mile distance.

The shape of the route, south to D.C., two loops around, and back north, is a noose. And that is the power of a truckers’ convoy. The fact that they bring us the goods we need to survive gives them a compelling voice. Even their highnesses behind the barricades must have food and fuel. The number of trucks in the convoy won’t cripple the country, but it’s a powerful hint. The people who actually make this country run want to be heard.

One California truck driver told me that 95 percent of all the bridges they passed were occupied by people holding signs and flags, even in desperately blue California. He said Californians are “eager to get their state back.”

That’s what the stakes are, nationwide. This was once the people’s country. But now, small businesses have been held under by the illicit mandates, while billionaires rise. A massive transfer of wealth has been perpetrated under the guise of public health measures. Children’s health and education has been sacrificed. Masks have caused us to say less, and say it less forcefully. 

The voice of the people is rarely heard now in the halls of power. We are without a champion in Washington and in most state capitols, sheep without a shepherd. We the People have been effectively silenced.

Then along comes the Convoy. Truckers give us a voice, and what a blood-pounding honk it is. We’ve reached the point at which the People can only be heard by government when we gather in crowds with a fleet of big rigs behind us. If that’s what it takes to get their attention, the conversation has ended; those in power have packed up the sound system and gone back to their castles.  

As in Canada, it is screechingly obvious that a government that works for the people has nothing to fear from them. The very fact that both Canadian and American governments put up barricades around their fortresses and called in heavily armed protection means that they perceive the people as a threat. Those are guilty consciences speaking. 

Meanwhile, the trucks roll around the Beltway on their daily rounds. It appears this operation will continue until there is something like a reasonable response to The People’s Convoy from the “people’s government.” On March 8, Senators Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) met with Convoy representatives.

After a private meeting with truckers, Senator Johnson called for the press. Spokesman Brian Brase reiterated the basic objectives of the People’s Convoy: to end the state of emergency, end all vaccine mandates, and hold officials accountable for the damage done at all levels. Brase said the truckers aren’t going anywhere, so we can expect them to continue for a while yet. (The press conference can be viewed here.)

It is, at least, a start.

It’s anyone’s guess how this will end. The truckers sound a brazen note of hope in the lamentation of our country’s decline. If we support those who are bearing the burden for all of us, processing around I-495 each morning, we might halt the advance of darkness in this country long enough for us all to put on the armor of God and fight the good fight. I’d say the Convoy is about more than mandates now; it’s about making our government answerable to the people again, on a myriad of critical issues, many having to do with the safety of our children. 

A skeptic could argue that it is all a waste of time and diesel. But in a completely benevolent and friendly way, the truckers have caused guilty politicians to expose themselves as fearful, and they have caused ordinary Americans to notice it. They have taught us to be unintimidated and demonstrated that we are a force when we are united. They have reminded us that those behind the barricades work for us.

They have given ordinary Americans a voice. Now we have to use it. 

[Photo Credit: Bridgett Leming]