This commentary is by Ron Pulcer, a resident of Rutland Town.
When I first heard the news about the Canadian truckers’ protest in Ottawa, I viewed it as a foreign or local story. Then I saw a sign supporting the Canadian “anti-vaccine” protesters by a vendor at the Rutland Farmers Market.
Given other world news, it seemed that Ukrainian citizens might be underreacting to a possible imminent invasion by Putin’s Russian military, while the small minority of Canadian truckers who are not vaccinated might be overreacting to vaccine mandates.
Ukraine’s democratically elected President Zelenaky could be replaced by a Putin puppet. Ten percent of Canadian truckers equate vaccine mandates to prevent Covid-19 hospitalizations and death as loss of “freedom.”
But then I heard more about Republican politicians supporting the Canadian truckers, as kind of a culture proxy war (former President Trump, Sen. Rand Paul, Sen. Ted Cruz, and others). I thought that a tenet of Republicans and conservatives was local control. Why meddle in another country? Sounds kind of Putin-esque.
Fox News spent hours touting freedom for Canadian truckers, while MAGA faithful concerned about inflation were sending their hard-earned dollars to crowdfund support for Canadian truckers. How much cash made it north of the border? How much inflated the coffers of GOP grifters? The DJT Legal Defense Fund?
Once the Canadian truckers went too far and blocked the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit, that was it for me. GOP-backed Canadian truckers clogged the main artery of the North American manufacturing economy. I thought the Republicans were the business-friendly party? No longer can they make that claim.
I worked in the automotive industry for over a decade before I moved to Vermont. After NAFTA and the “Roger and Me” documentary, I started to see the writing on the wall, and left the industry. My father (draftsman) and my wife’s father (electrician), like Michael Moore’s father, all worked for General Motors. My siblings, some cousins, some of their in-laws, and some of their children work directly or indirectly for GM, Ford and whatever Chrysler is called today (Stellantis).
Michigan is a peninsula and has more in common with Ontario than other U.S. states, including the Great Lakes and an integrated cross-border parts manufacturing and vehicle assembly economy, connected by the Ambassador Bridge and the Blue Water Bridge. The plant closings last week and the potential damage to our U.S. economy are huge.
Why would the GOP risk our American economy in these challenging times? The GOP eschewed a party platform in 2020. To paraphrase Proverbs 29:18, without a vision the party will perish. Or maybe the platform was flushed down a gold-plated toilet by the former president. Anyways, without a platform, it’s whatever the vengeful DJT, who thrives on chaos, wants.
Is the real leader of the Republican National Committee trying to tank Michigan’s economy because he didn’t get the Great Lake State’s Electoral College votes? Remember when then-VP Joe Biden said, “Bin Laden is dead, and General Motors is alive”? Is the Monarch of Mar-A-Lago upset because Justin Trudeau was recently reelected (albeit not by a majority) and he was not?
May I remind Sen. Rand Paul that there is a GM Corvette plant in Bowling Green, and Ford has two vehicle assembly plants in Louisville (trucks and cars).
May I remind Sen. Ted Cruz that there is a General Motors assembly plant in Arlington. Texas is a petroleum state and the Arlington plant makes several of GM’s largest vehicles.
There are GM, Ford and Stellantis plants in other U.S. states that voted for Trump in 2020. There are Japanese and German vehicle plants in Southern states. It’s likely some of the parts for those vehicles are made in Ontario and make their way south via the Ambassador Bridge.
Have GOP politicians forgotten the “Forgotten Man” (and Woman)?
Finally, a short distance from where the Canadian truckers are chanting “FREEDOM” and blocking entry to the Ambassador Bridge is a historical monument on the Detroit River. Along the Detroit Riverwalk and Hart Plaza is the Gateway to Freedom: International Memorial to the Underground Railroad.
Sculpture artist Ed Dwight depicted a group of eight African American slaves being led by their Underground Railroad conductor, who gazes across the Detroit River and points toward Canada. There is a companion artwork called the Tower of Freedom at the Civic Esplanade in Windsor, Ontario, also created by Ed Dwight.
Centuries and generations of enslavement, or two years of a pandemic, where a lifesaving vaccine is now available? I guess it depends on what your definition of “Freedom” is.
