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I spent four hours walking around the convoy’s Maryland
encampment. Make no mistake: The "People’s Convoy" has been a
great success for the far-right.

By Terry Bouton, associate professor of history at the
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
It’s hard to take the "People’s Convoy" trucker caravan
seriously. Starting as a protest against Covid mask and vaccine
restrictions, it launched after most mandates had been lifted.
Many of the convoy’s big rigs, pickups and SUVs are covered with
QAnon conspiracy references. Convoy organizers promised to shut
down Washington D.C. Instead, they parked their trucks at a
stock-car racetrack in western Maryland and then did a few gaffe-
filled laps around the D.C. Beltway. The convoy has been
lampooned in late-night talk show monologues and newspaper op-
eds, and parodied in countless memes. The consensus is that it
has been a complete failure.

That’s the wrong conclusion. I spent four hours walking around
the convoy’s Hagerstown, Maryland, encampment last Saturday.
Make no mistake: the "People’s Convoy" has been a great success
as a movement-building event for the far-right. And it should be
taken seriously, despite its absurdities.

The far-right was well represented at the convoy. Members of
white supremacist and anti-government groups that were at the
center of the Capitol insurrection have been heavily involved in
its planning. Erik Rohde, a national leader of Three Percenters,
was a “consultant” to the "People’s Convoy." (In return the
"People’s Convoy" official Telegram account urged supporters to
donate to a protest march on the Washington state capitol that
Rohde was organizing). Three Percenter and Proud Boy Telegram
channels have organized support and raised money for the
"People’s Convoy." In Wisconsin, convoy organizers called on the
Oath Keepers to provide security.

When I visited the Hagerstown encampment, numerous people wore
Proud Boys sweatshirts or had Three Percenter patches on their
jackets. I was told that other members of both groups were there
in street clothes. One guy I spoke to claimed to have entered
the Capitol on Jan. 6.

The Hagerstown encampment soft-pedaled the hate and the convoy’s
far-right ties, camouflaging them in a carnival-like atmosphere
that drew thousands of people from the surrounding region.
Entire families turned out to see the trucks and walk around the
giant Speedway parking lot. There was free food and drinks, DJs,
a band, quality fireworks, a ceremony with headlights and giant
flags. Drivers let kids pull their horns, rev their engines and
sign trucks with Sharpies. There was even funnel cake.

The convoy’s entire journey has had a similar festive feel,
drawing large crowds across the heartland. People flocked to
overpasses to hold signs and wave as the convoys passed.
Homeschooling mothers brought their kids as part of civics
lessons. Convoy stops were often mobbed with visitors and were
inundated with food and drink donations.

Meanwhile, membership in dozens of public and private Convoy
Facebook groups and Telegram channels has exploded. Convoy
drivers upload reports, sometimes with videos shot as their
trucks pass cheering crowds. Supporters post pictures and video
taken from overpasses and roadsides along the route. Most people
just write messages of support and thanks.

This is how social movements are built. The glue that binds
people together is events just like the convoy, where strangers
unite through a shared sense of belonging and purpose. They
reinforce commitments and forge new bonds as people talk, share
contact information, network and recruit. The man I spoke to who
claimed to have entered the Capitol became emotional just
talking about the convoy’s arrival in Hagerstown, comparing it
to a joyous July Fourth parade.

Politicians on the right have also been moved — at least enough
to get their pictures taken with the truckers. Indiana Attorney
General Todd Rokita spoke at a large convoy rally. The main
convoy organizers met with members of Congress and Sens. Ted
Cruz and Ron Johnson. Cruz later went to the Hagerstown
Speedway, flanked by national media, and rode in the passenger
seat of the lead truck, giving convoy organizers exactly the
media win they wanted.

All this has apparently been a huge boon for far-right
organizing. A Twitter account claiming to belong to Erik Rohde
(it posted video from the Washington state protest Rohde
organized) announced “Huge new membership spikes coast to coast”
as a result of “all the work we did on the People’s Convoy.”
Rohde cited a tongue-in-cheek 1776 percent “increase in new
applications” (followed by the “OK” hand emoji the far right has
adopted as a symbol of white power).

In the end, it doesn’t really matter if the convoy gets
politicians in Washington, D.C., to do anything at all. The real
payoff was getting millions of supporters more comfortable with
far-right white supremacist and anti-government ideas,
organizations and personalities.

By that standard, the "People’s Convoy" has been a clear and
frightening success.

https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/where-usa-trucker-convoy- now-liberals-should-know-ncna1291697

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