WHEN RULERS FEAR THE CITIZENS, IT IS NOT A REPUBLIC: Terrifying truck drivers result in fences going back up on Capitol Hill.

Flashback: Biden’s militarized inauguration showcased Democrats’ insecurity.

Nothing says, “This was a perfectly normal election, and now it’s time to come together as a united nation,” like having your swearing-in behind 12-foot-high razor wire surrounded by 25,000 troops whose loyalty you doubt. That’s what we witnessed at President Biden’s inauguration on Wednesday: a grim testament to the fundamental insecurity and fragility of the re-ascendant liberal elite.

Democrats no doubt hoped that the optics of this military-heavy presidential installation would convince ordinary Americans that the republic is in peril from the populist ferment that sent Donald Trump to the White House in 2016 and garnered more votes four years later than any GOP ticket, ever. It’s a peril that can only be addressed by, in James Comey’s lovely phrase, “burning down” the Republican Party.

But the whole aura was less Lincoln and more bananas. As in banana republic.

Still true.