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Mar 20 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Think the People's Convoy is going away? Think again. They have busy been mainstreaming and movement-building. You probably heard that they met with Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Ron Johnson (R-WI). But there's been a lot more going on. 🧵
On 3/17, a Montana trucker broke away from circling the beltway, drove to the Capitol, and demanded to meet with his representatives in Congress. Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-MT) obliged, and Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) joined in for a tour of the Capitol Building.
The next day at the morning meeting, a speaker announced that the Convoy was going to Black Lives Matter Plaza in DC to take it back: "all that paint’s getting off that street.” The crowd cheered. “Then we’re gunna tar & feather our delegates.”

Earlier, the People's Convoy had applied to stage a two-week protest on the National Mall but were denied because other events had already reserved the space. Imagine the national spotlight they would have captured if they had acted sooner.

washingtonpost.com/transportation…
Back at the Hagerstown Speedway, there have been media stunts galore, including a skydiver and a wedding officiated by Trucker G, who livestreams (w/ extra exclusive pay content), has 137k followers on Facebook, started a Trucker G swag store, and now has corporate sponsorship.
Live bands will play all day Sunday at Hagerstown, headlined by a country act known for a song titled, "I Love My Truck." Elsewhere, rallies and protests have been planned across the country in support of the People's Convoy.

This is what movement-building looks like.
(Thanks to @_Noelle_Cook who follows this closely. As with the Jan. 6 and original People's Convoy threads, this is a team effort).
been busy.
"busy been" was typed while channeling Yoda.

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More from @TerryBoutonHist

Terry Bouton Profile picture
Mar 21
Spent another day at People’s Convoy camp and noticed some changes from our first visit. Two weeks in there were fewer trucks, cars, and outside visitors. The dancing at the live bands was painful to watch.

But that’s not the story.

(w/@_Noelle_Cook)

Here are our four most important observations:
1) The encampment has an ever-changing population. There are plenty of stalwarts who have been there from the start. But most of the camp is filled with people who stay for a few days or a week and then head home. Image
Most people we talked to had arrived last week and were leaving soon. Some were on their second or even third stays. Many of these people came, left for work, returned, and are leaving for work again. Image
Read 20 tweets
Terry Bouton Profile picture
Mar 6
We spent four hours walking around the “Peoples Convoy” Trucker encampment at the Hagerstown Speedway in MD. Anyone dismissing this as a failed event by the crazy fringe is missing the big picture.

Here are five important take-aways. 🧵

(Photos by @_Noelle_Cook).
1) There were thousands of people there. About a hundred semi-trailer cabs and hundreds of convoy pick-up trucks and SUVs filled nearly every spot in the huge Speedway parking lot. Tents were everywhere. On top of this, thousands of locals came for the day from MD, PA, WV, VA.
2) There was a clear attempt to appear more mainstream. The focus was a big-tent ideology of “Freedom.” Although started by anti-vaxxers, it was re-framed as “protecting our liberties” in ways that allowed for diverse beliefs. Christian Nationalism mixed with QAnon spiritualism.
Read 14 tweets
Terry Bouton Profile picture
Mar 5
The stalled Russian convoy reminds me of British General John Burgoyne's army on the way to the Battle of Saratoga in 1777. Both past and present feature huge slow-moving convoys, constant harassment, logistical nightmares, and fatal underestimates of local resistance. 🧵
Like the Russian convoy, Burgoyne led a massive wagon train overland that was slowed by heavy rains, muddy roads, unwieldy artillery, and constant attacks and sabotage by Patriot militias that felled trees across roads and blew up bridges to slow Burgoyne's march.
Like the Russian convoy, Burgoyne's poor planning created a logistical nightmare as the delays caused his army to run out of food and supplies, compelling him to divert plans and stall his army's progress so he could resupply his slow-moving forces.
Read 6 tweets
Terry Bouton Profile picture
Jan 8
The fixes suggested here for healing the racial divide offer no real solutions because they ignore how entrenched racism stands at the core of the split. White supremacy never gives up without a fight. You don't solve the crisis of democracy by ignoring it's central problems. 1/
In “Cease-Fire in the Culture Wars,” Yascha Mounk blames "the elite" for endangering democracy by putting Trump voters "on the receiving end of a culture war in which the most powerful elements of their own societies look down on them.”
His solution?
Liberal democracies "need to embrace a more ambitious vision of diversity by promising all citizens—majority and minority—social respect and a place at the table." In other words, we need more respect for bigotry, sexism, anti-science ignorance, and gaslighting authoritarianism.
Read 8 tweets
Terry Bouton Profile picture
Aug 27, 2021
Lt. Michael Byrd did more than he knows. I was at the Capitol Insurrection observing on the east (non-mall) side and witnessed the difference his actions made. Shooting Ashli Babbitt stopped another wave of violent insurrectionists from entering the Capitol.
Just before Lt. Byrd shot Babbitt, insurrectionists inside the Capitol had managed to open a door on the House side. At the time, the crowd on east side was almost all on the center stairs, having no luck trying to (re)break into the doors that led into the Rotunda.
With few people on the House stairs, the insurrectionists who had opened the door started shouting, "Door on the House side is open! Come on over!" But the crowd didn't move. I don't think many of them knew which was the House side.
Read 8 tweets
Terry Bouton Profile picture
Jul 6, 2021
Six months ago I witnessed the Capitol Insurrection firsthand and reported the open embrace of authoritarianism--not just by the hardcore extremists who stormed the building--but also by the crowd outside who called themselves "Patriots" and said this was "Our 1776." 1/6
Hearing a diverse mass of ordinary looking, middle-class white people discussing violence in calm, matter-of-fact tones was more chilling than the organized militias and proud white supremacists because it revealed authoritarianism's grip on a large minority of the US. 2/6
Since 1/6 that grip has tightened and spread. Republican leaders who condemned both the Insurrection and Donald Trump have nearly all backtracked. They blocked impeachment and then a bipartisan investigation into 1/6. Now they increasingly deny the Insurrection even happened. 3/6
Read 6 tweets

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