I am watching matters develop with regards to the trucker strike, with appreciative interest, seeing that is really another variant of a grass-roots spontaneous civic spontaneity, much like the Tea Party was, some years ago. The Canadian trucker protest has that in common with the Tea Party protesters – but the difference might be that the independent trucker community is a smaller, a more cohesive and even more media-savvy and self-disciplined party. The various Tea Party protests were more general, cut across class lines (at least the urban-focused one that I was involved in was, no matter what the establishment national media might insist) and focused more upon voting in various political races then upcoming, and protesting the general monetary incompetence of the Obama Administration.

This excited a great deal of mostly temporary interest on the part of several different parties. The established GOP locally were initially thrilled to bits, seeing this as a brand-new pony for them to ride, already saddled and bridled; votes for the usual useless GOP establishment creatures, and a bounteous source of volunteers and funds. The establishment media outlets were initially intrigued and then horrified, upon seeing ordinary people who had never gone out for politics at any level … suddenly become intensely interested to the point of participating in massive street gatherings. Upon discovering that Tea Partiers were generally conservative in outlook, and placed a high value on leading balanced, family-oriented and fiscally-responsible lives in well-run communities … well, that would never do! It would be bad for ratings, and because Obama was the inspiration for generating such protests, was obviously raaaaacist.
Also, as far as the establishment media seemed to be concerned, a lack of civic dysfunction, quiet order and economic self-sufficiency would be bad for ratings and would upset the various apple carts and overturn the iron rice bowls of all those credentialed expert on speed-dial to such media commentators as NPR. As the media rep for the local Tea Party at the time, I was rather boggled at how little interest our activities excited among the established media. Any of us on the board could have explained ourselves very coherently to any media rep who would have called up and asked. Instead, they seemed to prefer going to the experts enshrined in their golden Rolodex under the divider of ‘domestic political movements.’
In contrast to all that, the trucker protest is one which, if they put their minds into it – might have certain urban localities and industries by the throat – a capability which the establishment media doesn’t quite seem to grasp, so deeply embedded are they in a class-oriented structure. There are those who can and do work at home on their laptops and know all the right people because they have gone to the right universities … and then, there are those beneath their notice, like grocery clerks, supermarket shelf-stockers, delivery drivers, plumbers, electricians … and truck drivers. (Also air traffic controllers, nurses when they aren’t doing TikTok videos, the janitors who clean public spaces, the housekeepers at hotel chains, taxi and Uber drivers, farmers and mechanics … all of them people who have to actually show up at the work site and put in hours actually being there and doing physical work …)
Suppose the truckers begin to refuse in a large way, to make deliveries, refuse to take contracts to convey goods between one point and the next. Suppose that some truck drivers are sidelined, by their own choice, or by the decisions of high-handed political bureaucrats … Stopped at the borders, or the bridges, or at the ring-roads around various cities? The distribution network is already stressed almost to the breaking point … and what if even more truckers in North America decided to ground their tools, park their trucks and go honk their horns and set up bouncy castles for the kids to play in?
What then, oh wolves?
Deliveries wouldn’t be made, of course. And Peppermint Psaki, the blandly-evasive spokes-liar for the present administration, upon being asked for a reaction to that development at a White House news conference, would likely make some snarky comment about the tragedy of the delayed treadmill. Not a word regarding the delayed – or non-delivery of groceries, infant formula, necessary spare parts, and whole boatloads of essentials.
What then? Discuss as you have insight and local knowledge.