According to a report from the Washington Post, a small group of die-hard conservatives and Donald Trump supporters who took part in the the so-called “People’s Convoy” have yet to go home and have been living in their cars or vans for weeks, meeting each day and wondering why their movement didn’t catch on.
The trucker convoy, also known as the “1776 Restoration Movement,” was ostensibly organized to protest vaccine mandates, but gradually changed into a grab-bag protest against the policies of President Joe Biden which mostly dissipated as they were ignored and then was dogged by accusations about where donations were going.
In June, trucking industry website Freightwaves issued a special report stating that $1.8 million in donations had been taken in with no accountability about spending which had organizers pointing fingers at each other.
That report stated, “In the days prior to the convoy’s collapse, participants and supporters say they were asked to ‘pass the hat’ and chip in cash to pay the Hagerstown Speedway for allowing them to camp there and use the site as a staging area to launch its slow rolls and loops around the Washington Beltway.”
On Sunday, the Post’s Joe Heim reported some members have yet to leave.
“They were hoping that thousands or maybe even millions of other Americans would join their cause, Tom Fisher, 70, a retired state park ranger from Arizona said as he stood in the shade on a blistering hot Washington afternoon last week,” he wrote. “Instead, there are about two dozen stalwarts who’ve camped out with American flag-draped cars and trucks since July 6 to demonstrate against what they say is America’s slow but sure abandonment of the Constitution and to call for a peaceful return ‘to a constitutional Republic through the restoration of a moral society.'”
In an interview, Fisher admitted he is perplexed why the 1776 Restoration Movement faltered and collapsed.
“I’m disappointed. I thought once we occupied D.C., people would come out,” he lamented.
As the report notes, “The response, instead, has been mostly indifference. As well as some heckling and trolling. And some criticism that 1776 Restoration Movement is just another group using a narrowly defined patriotism to grift for dollars and social media clout.”
Attempting to put a positive spin on the collapse, Ohio truck driver and evangelical minister David Riddell, 57, who was one of the founders, claimed, “This is family. So far in this movement, I’ve baptized three of them in the Potomac, renewed the vows of another couple, celebrated the 57th wedding anniversary with another one. This is family.”
Riddell added, “Do I agree with what went on January 6? No, absolutely not. That’s not how we do things. Do we have a Second Amendment right to throw off a tyrannical government? Yes. That’s what the Constitution says. But do we have a moral right to do that at this time? The answer to that is a resounding no. You do not, because you don’t use violence until it is the absolute last resort.”
The Post report adds, “On Monday, the group’s protest permit expires. By then, the last of the 1776 Restoration Movement protesters will have packed up their signs and flags and camp chairs and coolers and retreated to Bunker Hill, where they plan to regroup, reorganize, reread the Constitution and prepare to return in early September to redress their grievances once more.”