It’s worth watching the first 30 seconds of this viral video of a parolee pleading with environmentalist protesters who blocked traffic outside of Washington, D.C., on July 4:
VIDEO THREAD: Yesterday, July 4, activists demanding Joe Biden declare a "Climate Emergency" blocked traffic on he beltway in Maryland, just outside DC.
One agitated driver got physical with them while saying that he's on parole and could return to prison if late for his job. pic.twitter.com/iWSqTlnlSW
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) July 5, 2022
“One lane! I’m asking one lane!” pleads the man, who says he will “go to prison” if he can’t make it to his job. The environmentalist ideologues are unmoved.
The video is enough to infuriate anyone with an ounce of sanity and an ounce of sympathy. And it should make it clear that there is never a good reason for protesters to block traffic. There will always be parolees and average people who just need to get to work to support themselves and their families. Sick people will always need to be taken to the hospital (and so will pregnant women who need to deliver their babies). That’s true even if a particular protest doesn’t yield a viral video.
So it really does not matter what the protest is targeting — climate policy, vaccine mandates, or even abortion — blocking traffic is a cruel and counterproductive policy because it hurts innocent people.
The trucker protests over vaccine mandates never really hit America the way they hit Canada — to the best of my knowledge there were traffic slowdowns, not shutdowns, in the D.C. area — but they did garner the support of some on the right. Kentucky GOP senator Rand Paul said five months ago that “it’d be great” if Canadian-style trucker protests came to America: “I hope the truckers do come to America, and I hope they clog up cities.”
After watching the above video of the parolee just trying to get to work at his job outside The Swamp, does the Kentucky senator feel an ounce of shame or regret for endorsing the tactics of the environmentalists?