TRENTON, N.J. – Liberty-loving truckers and their supporters took to the roads over the weekend for a peaceful Freedom Convoy in protest of unconstitutional mandates and the restoration of the Founding Fathers’ vision of a representative republic.
Among their supporters was Assemblyman Brian Bergen, who spoke to a crowd of more than 1,000 rally participants at New Egypt Speedway Saturday night.
“I honestly don’t feel worthy of standing up here in front of this kind of crowd. You are just such amazing people. This is the type of rally that really reinvigorates my love for this country. You guys are so awesome,” Bergen (R-Morris) said at the rally. “And it’s this type of thing, when people unite together to stand up together in the face of government overreach that really breathes life back into the Constitution and pushes the air that waves the flag. This is what it’s all about.”
Bergen, a West Point graduate, Apache helicopter pilot and combat veteran, spoke vehemently against government encroachment on civil liberties during the Covid-19 public health emergency, which expired March 7. He several times introduced legislation to rein in Gov. Phil Murphy’s reign-by-executive-order, shot down each time by the Democrat majority.
“Now a lot of people have asked over the past couple years, ‘Where is the Republican Party? Where’s the Republican Party for us?’ Well let me tell you something, ladies and gentlemen: the Republican Party has climbed out of the country clubs and now we’re down on the ground with the people, standing with you. We’re with you in your trucks, behind those counters in the grocery store, at your union halls,” Bergen told the crowd. “The Republican Party is the People’s Party. We are the party of freedom. We are the people who will unite with you and stand with you like I stand with you today.”
The two-day nonpartisan event started Saturday at different points across New Jersey—in Mahwah March 5, and Galloway and New Egypt March 6—with a finale at the Salem County Fairgrounds Sunday. New Jersey organizers discouraged participants to travel to Washington, D.C., for a planned convoy to drive loops around the Capital Beltway starting March 7.
Trucker convoy protests have formed around the globe over the last several months. The most widely reported protest took place in Canada, where truck drivers blocked most streets around Parliament Hill in Ottawa and shut down traffic on the Ambassador Bridge that connects Detroit, Mich. and Windsor, Ontario.
Those protests against Covid mandates were quashed when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergency Measures Act, which allowed the government to freeze bank accounts with a court order and prohibit public assembly and travel and would have allowed military intervention against its own citizens.