Washington, DC — Tall fences topped with thick, spiralling razor wire encased the US Capitol area on Friday, as thousands of heavily armed National Guardsmen stood watch. Bridges leading into the city will be closed beginning this weekend. Access to the grounds will be highly restricted.
In many ways, the lead-up to the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden more resembles the visit of a head of state to a military encampment in a warzone than it does the swearing-in of the president of the United States at the building housing the nation’s legislature.
The swearing-in of the 46th president will lack not just the pomp and pageantry of years past, but also the symbolic openness characteristic of the peaceful transfer of power in what is perhaps the world’s proudest democracy.