There’ll be no arguments about crowd size at Joe Biden’s inauguration — because there won’t be a crowd.
In an extraordinary move that reveals the extreme state in which President Donald Trump has left the nation, the entire monument-dotted National Mall in Washington will be closed on Wednesday. There are fears that violent pro-Trump mobs that stormed the US Capitol will return — and concern for the safety of Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris and other dignitaries at the open-air ceremony.
Past presidents took the oath of office before huge, carnival-like crowds that stretched as far as the eye could see down the Mall, in a powerful national unifying moment. Whatever the party, the sight of a new first couple exiting the presidential limo and walking down Pennsylvania Avenue, yet to be beaten down by the burdens of office, crushed ideals and White House scandals, was a symbol of political renewal.*
But this year, there are more US troops in Washington than in Iraq and Afghanistan. Massive iron and concrete barriers have been erected blocks away from the inaugural platform on the West Front of the Capitol. One official said well-wishers would be lucky to even glimpse the top of the Capitol's white dome if they show up.
It was always going to be an unusual inauguration, with mass gatherings now lethally dangerous due to the coronavirus pandemic, which Trump ignored. And the outgoing President, still lying about his election defeat, has said he won’t show up, denying Biden yet another important legitimating symbol.
When the world watches on Wednesday, it will take away a tragic truth: Two great icons of US democracy, the Capitol and the White House, must now be sealed inside a vast cage to protect them from the people they serve.
* True, Trump's inauguration also lacked the traditional sense of joy, as he warned the country of “American carnage" in an address reportedly described by ex-President George W. Bush as “some weird sh**t.”
