Esquire's Charlie Pierce wrote on Monday that the United States has exported its crazy anti-vaxxers to Canada -- but they're not going facing the soft response that protesters have in the U.S.
As truckers flooded the streets of Ottawa, politicians on all sides are pushing for a heavy response from law enforcement. Ontario Premier Doug Ford tweeted that he has sent law enforcement assistance to Ottawa. As Pierce explained, "as far as wingnut uprisings go, when you’ve lost Doug Ford…"
On Monday afternoon, a judge even went so far as to issue an injunction stopping truck horns from honking in the center of Ottawa.
"The reason we should pay it the closest attention is because the usual flock of buzzards already seems to be circling in anticipation down here," wrote Pierce. "You could hear them crying their wounded cries when GoFundMe cut off American donations to the Ottawa hooligans. Tailgunner Ted Cruz wants an investigation into GFM’s decision."
Right-wing Republicans such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), former President Donald Trump, and others have promoted the Canadian truckers and cheered on their opposition to vaccine mandates.
Pierce writes that this is only going to continue with more and more truckers "cosplaying minutemen-on-wheels" and the GOP will "use it for the 2022 midterms to encourage white working-class male rage, COVID exhaustion, fossil fuels, and really big trucks going toot-toot-toot."
Pierce elaborated on this strategy by putting it in recent historical context.
"If you’re making a revolution based on a third-grade tantrum, you have everything you need, and every other midterm election since 2008 has been a third-grade tantrum," he writes. "If you can’t envision, say, a blockade of trucks around the offices of various secretaries of state, or blaring past polling places in 'certain' neighborhoods, you haven’t been paying attention. That’s a big 10-4 on elections, good buddy."
Read the full take at Esquire.
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