'One Million Truckers' Ride to Restore Constitution Next Week

Originally published at:
http://digitaljournal.com/article/358989

Having had their Facebook page shut down by Facebook administrators earlier this month, a group spearheaded by the Independent Truckers of America is calling for a three-day 'buy nothing' period from October 11 - 13.

On these days, the truckers will descend upon Washington, DC, in heavy rigs with signs calling for the restoration of a constitutional republic. The truckers are demanding that congressmen obey their oath to "defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic." Supporters of the action say that members of Congress must obey their oath or resign.

After Facebook shut down the group's Facebook page entitled "Truckers To Shutdown America," which had reached 86,000 "likes," the truckers opened a new website, RideForTheConstitution.org. A second Facebook page has since been reopened under the new title "Truckers Ride For The Constitution." (Cached screenshot of previous Facebook page.)

Among the points made at the Facebook page before it was shut down was: "The banksters need to be thrown in jail. They must be stopped from stealing trillions of dollars from our country."

A complete manifesto published at the new website includes the grievances:
 

c) "We now support Al Qaeda. This must end immediately. We have lost thousands of lives fighting Al Qaeda, now we need to arrest people like Obama and McCain for aiding them. We should do this on behalf of all the men and women who have given their lives for our country."

...

e) The criminals who are responsible for stealing trillions from our country need to be thrown in jail...

 ...

f) Our elected officials have allowed the NDAA to become law. This horrifying legislation that most Americans don't know much about has converted our country from a free country to a tyrannical one. This is fact; not theory. The NDAA must be repealed along with any other unconstitutional legislation

...

i) There are so many cover-ups it is almost impossible to list them here. Benghazi, Seal Team 6 Six, Osama Bin Laden death, drug running (CIA) and gun running by the US Justice Department (Eric Holder's Fast & Furious). These must be investigated, and people need to be brought to justice.

[update: The truckers have also called for repeal of the USA Patriot Act.  The truckers were also against the bombing of Syria.]

The reference to NDAA, the National Defense Authorization Act, is a reference to the power sought by and obtained by Obama to arrest and hold US citizens in military detention, without charge or trial, indefinitely. (House roll call vote on NDAA 2012, a 'yea' is for power to hold Americans indefinitely without charge or trial.)

Other grievances are what the group says is truckers' subsistence on "slave wages." The truckers say:

"Independent Truckers have an incentive to protest, because of dangerous regulation of New Hours of Service and are living on poverty wages like many others. Low wage jobs are all that is left. Our system is setup for the same slave labor we benefit from in China & Vietnam, and the truckers are the symbol we can all relate to. Workers must not be treated as slave laborers."

The entire document can be viewed HERE.

The group says in its manifesto:
 

"The only thing that motivates every politician is their money -- cutting off their money-flow cuts off their life-blood. The Independent Truckers in the United States essentially keep commerce flowing for benefit of the wealthy elite. The only way to get our legislators to operate lawfully and Constitutionally is to penalize them with a credible threat of a shutdown. Through this effort, the American people can demand that all Congressman & Senators sign on to the demands for them to operate lawfully and Constitutionally, or risk a possible shutdown if they refuse to follow the law; the supreme law of the land; the U.S. Constitution."

The group is calling for Americans in support of the action to pre-purchase food and necessities prior to the days October 11 through 13, and to not purchase anything on those days in order to remind the Congress of the power of the purse string wielded by the general public. The group says: "The event is specifically scheduled for a holiday weekend so as not to harm America, and to also allow for every American to participate in this protest during a non-work weekend."


 

The convoy, which the organizers say has been months in planning, follows the recent remark by former President Jimmy Carter, unreported in the American media but reported by the German Der Spiegel, that the United States no longer has a "functioning democracy."
 
Other nationwide citizen's groups have sprung up recently to oppose US government infringements on the Constitution, most especially the Bill of Rights. Among these are RestoreTheFourth.net, which opposes unconstitutional NSA spying on Americans, and People Against the NDAA, which opposes the law allowing the indefinite military detention of US citizens. People Against the NDAA, known as PANDA, refers to a US Supreme Court decision in 1803 in which Chief Justice John Marshall held that any law "repugnant" to the U.S. Constitution is "void." People Against the NDAA argues that orders issued under a blatantly unconstitutional law are illegal orders, and therefore need not be obeyed by officers sworn to uphold and defend the US Constitution.

One group which has announced it will join the Ride for the Constitution is "Overpasses for Obama's impeachment," which calls on citizens to join its campaign of highway overpass signs calling for the impeachment of Obama. In its stated reasons for its campaign, OverpassesForAmerica.com says that Americans:
 

"...face the very real possibility of living their lives under a never relenting grip of tyranny; Where being spied upon by the government is considered normal; Where any view outside that of the ruling regime is considered terrorism; Where the Bill of Rights is considered a quaint notion from days gone by."

Further clarifying why it focuses on removing Obama, the group explains that though it views Obama as but one man in a "machine of tyranny," that:
 

"...by removing Obama from office we will slow the machine of tyranny, like a wrench in the gears. Slow the machine, throw a wrench in the gears, and we damage the machine that is chopping away at our rights slowly but surely."

One of the group's concerns is the claim made by Obama of the authority to order the extrajudicial assassination of any US citizen, either here or abroad, upon being deemed a "terrorist" by the government . The administration follows the Bush doctrine that the entire world, including the U.S., is now the "battlefield."

Ride for the Constitution is calling for citizens and truckers who cannot travel to Washington, DC, to organize local actions, such as local convoys, highway overpass banner drops, and the passing out of flyers in solidarity. Ride supporters in blogs have quoted Thomas Jefferson:
 

"The two enemies of the people are criminals and government, so let us tie the second down with the chains of the Constitution so the second will not become the legalized version of the first."

RELATED:

Trucker Ride for the Constitution calls for repeal of Patriot Act