Remember when a tiny virus was the biggest threat to the presidential inauguration? Then a deadly mob stormed the capitol and within a week downtown Washington DC was locked down hard, making the big ceremony one tense celebration.
Every four years protesters make trouble, but never before has the election itself been violently condemned as a fraud. Fears of armed insurrection put new razorwire atop the fences and tripled the National Guard presence to 25,000 soldiers. A new “Green Zone” shut down the city center in a wartime posture that worked. A few arrests were made for carrying handguns but there were no attacks and barely even peaceful protests.