Joe Biden was sworn into office preaching “unity”.
But his actions in the first month of his term are the exact opposite.
Now, Biden and Pelosi are placing D.C. on a lockdown that has critics comparing it to America’s ongoing wars in the Middle East.
One of the first major acts of Joe Biden’s tenure as President was to place Washington, D.C. on a military lockdown the likes of which the US capital has rarely seen before.
As Politico reported this week, “federal law enforcement officials told lawmakers last week (the impeachment trial) requires as many as 5,000 National Guard troops to remain in Washington through mid-March.”
Furthermore, an effort is underway to put a permanent barbed wire fence around the U.S. Capitol building.
The Washington Post reported this week that officials have “proposed erecting permanent fencing around the U.S. Capitol” similar to the “non-scalable fencing topped with spools of wire” that is currently in place after the Jan. 6th riots.
Now that senior officials have decided that the American public should be kept at bay with barbed wire fences, many have wondered what this means for the future of American democracy.
Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the most conservative members of the House, has an idea why. In an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, Massie said, “the most insidious reason that they have these soldiers here … is that they want to pass new laws that will invade your privacy, and confiscate your guns, in the name of domestic terrorism.”
Massie went on to say that he believes the soldiers in D.C. may be part of the new “forever war,” just like the endless wars American troops are sent to fight all around the globe.
Massie, of course, opposes those extreme measures. However, some members of Congress think we need to go even further. Shockingly, some Republicans have even started to think this way.
Rep. Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan who is fresh off voting to impeach President Trump, said on CNN, “we can’t trust that the people won’t try to overrun the Capitol.” He believes that the people (even the hundreds of millions who didn’t participate in the riot) have to “rebuild trust” with their superiors in Congress.
If, as Massie is concerned about, the soldiers in Washington D.C. are being used as a pretext to pass a new surveillance bill to label conservatives as “domestic terrorists” and spy on them, many believe it could spell the end of American democracy.
For many years, the Capitol building has been open to the public. Because it is the People’s House, ordinary American citizens could walk in, talk to their representatives, and watch sessions of Congress. This allowed them to do things like lobby for bills that they found important, or lobby against bills that stripped them of their liberty.
However, it appears now that those days may be over. If things continue down this path, citizens will never be allowed to lobby again in the Capitol – only special interest lobbyists, from big tech or defense contractors, or other huge corporations. Everyday Americans will be treated like threats who need to be kept away from government officials.
Things are quickly changing in Washington, D.C. This developing situation bears watching.