Sen. Rand Paul said during an interview last week ahead of Canadian authorities cracking down on truckers blocking an international bridge but who are still protesting against a COVID-19 vaccine mandate in the capital of Ottawa that he hopes American drivers do the same thing and "clog up cities."
“I’m all for it,” Paul told The Daily Signal on Thursday. “Civil disobedience is a time-honored tradition in our country, from slavery to civil rights, to you name it. Peaceful protest, clog things up, make people think about the mandates.”
“And some of this, we started,” the Kentucky Republican who has a mean libertarian streak continued. “We put [COVID-19] mandates on truckers coming across the border from Canada so they put mandates on, and the truckers are annoyed. They’re riding in a cab by themselves, most of them for eight, 10-hour long hauls, and they just want to do what they want to do. It’s their own business.”
“It’d be great, but the thing is, it wouldn’t shut the city down because the government workers haven’t come to work in two years anyway,” Paul snarked. “I don’t know if it’ll affect D.C. It’d be a nice change. We’d actually have some traffic.”
“I hope the truckers do come to America,” he emphasized. “I hope they clog up cities.”
Referencing the trucker convoy protests as well as parents demonstrating against mandates and obscene, divisive, racist curriculum at school board meetings, Paul said that the country is witnessing a "break in the dam" against leftist pandemic restrictions.
“Several Democratic governors are finally, sort of, relinquishing,” he noted. “What they’re finding is, moms and dads are upset about this. They’re not just Republican. Everybody’s upset about this. They’re annoyed that their little kids have to be in a mask.”
Meanwhile, tyrannical Democrats like that lunatic authoritarian in Michigan, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer -- who locked down her state until she was forced to reopen by successive courts -- are complaining about the 'economic impact' of the Canadian Freedom Convoy and backed efforts to forcibly diffuse it (but her supporting unmasked, non-socially-distanced BLM protests were just fine).
“As Canadian truckers block the Ambassador Bridge between Detroit, Michigan, and Windsor, Ontario, in protest of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D-MI) called on Canadian authorities to take ‘necessary and appropriate steps,'” The Daily Wire reported last week.
“My message is simple: Reopen traffic on the bridge,” the governor said in a statement. “In Michigan, our economy continues to grow because of our hardworking people and innovative small businesses. Now, that momentum is at risk. Commercial traffic is at a standstill at the Ambassador Bridge and heavily backed up at the Blue Water Bridge.
“It is imperative that Canadian local, provincial, and national governments de-escalate this economic blockade. They must take all necessary and appropriate steps to immediately and safely reopen traffic so we can continue growing our economy, supporting good-paying jobs, and lowering costs for families,” Whitmer added.
In an interview with CNN -- of course -- Whitmer complained even more about actions that are protected in the U.S. by the First Amendment.
"They're inciting and encouraging people to break the law and to do so in a way that devastates so many hard-working people…This is five days, and it's already taken a toll of tens of billions of dollars — that number compounds over time," she said.
"And any encouragement for people to replicate this and break the law and devastate our economy is not just devastating to our national bottom line but to individual households…It's incredibly unhelpful and downright dangerous."
Again, Whitmer locked down businesses in her state for the better part of a year under the guise of pretending to 'stop the spread' of COVID-19, which did not work but which did devastate businesses and livelihoods.
As for Paul, he's the one who has it right: Peaceful protests (not violent rioting and looting) are God-given human rights and should be exercised no matter anyone's political affiliation, especially when it comes to pushing back on tyrannical mandates that do nothing but empower tyrants.
Sources include:
Please contact us for more information.