Through 2016 and 2017, when Trump said "wall" or "fence," Democrats went crazy.  Nothing could be eviler than a barrier between North and South America.  Since January 6, though, Democrats are ready to begin a new love affair with barriers, starting at Congress.

Donald Trump's primary campaign promise in 2016 was that he would build a barrier along America's southern border to stanch the unending flow of illegal aliens coming up from Latin America.  He pointed out that these illegal aliens were taking away American jobs, driving down wages, and facilitating the illegal drug trade.  Others noted that sending poor people north gave corrupt governments a safety valve that precluded reform; the journey north was tailor-made for sexual exploitation of both women and children; and when the illegal aliens arrived in America, their life in the shadows made them targets for both sexual and economic exploitation.

For Trump voters, a wall or fence giving America's immigration laws a boost made eminent sense.  For Democrats, though, any barrier was suddenly completely evil.

For example, in July 2016, in Cleveland, leftists engaged in the type of street theater they love so much to protest Trump's plan to build a wall, which the Republican Party adopted as part of its platform.  Activists decided to build a wall around the RNC.  Marisa Franco, a spokesman for a group called Mijente, explained the idea behind "Wall Off Trump":

So, you know, Donald Trump has campaigned all across the country pledging to build this wall. So, here at his coronation as the nominee for the Republican Party, Mijente, along with Iraq Veterans Against the War, Ruckus Society and The Other 98, many other organizations, decided to bring him his wall and build it here for him. But instead of building a wall that divides our communities, we wanted to build a wall that protects our communities from the hatred, racism and xenophobia of his campaign.

It turns out, though, that barriers are a good thing when they protect Democrat politicians from their fellow Americans.  There's currently a giant fence around the Capitol for Biden's virtual inauguration.  (It's virtual because nobody will be there.  The Democrats have used COVID as an excuse to have Biden inaugurated in what's going to be a mostly private ceremony from which the American people who gave him more votes than any president in history, including Obama, will be excluded.)

Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-Da Bronx) has introduced a bill to make the unsightly fence wrapped around Congress a permanent fixture (and please note the "insurrection" narrative about a motley, disorganized outbreak of limited and pointless, although still deadly, violence):

Freshman Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) plans to revive the Capitol Gateway Plan, a previously rejected security proposal to encircle the entire Capitol grounds with a permanent secure fence, as a House bill on Wednesday afternoon.

Torres had the idea for the proposal — which comes in response to the January 6 riot at the Capitol — after reading a Jewish Insider interview the following day with former Senate Sergeant-at Arms Terry Gainer, who spearheaded the Capitol Gateway Plan, the New York congressman told JI on Wednesday.

"I never thought, as a newly sworn in member, that I would live through a violent insurrection against the Capitol," Torres told JI. "Compared to the White House, which has long been heavily guarded and enclosed, the security of the Capitol has long been an afterthought for federal law enforcement. Congress is a co-equal branch of government. And we should strive to make the Capitol every bit as secure as the White House itself." 

Torres, 32, is so young that he may not remember that the only time in modern history when House members were at risk was when a Democrat, James Hodgkinson, tried to slaughter as many Republican members of the House as possible, back in 2017.  What saved the representatives was that there were armed good guys (U.S. Capitol Police officers) present at the time.

And speaking of good guys being armed, one Democrat doesn't think any Republicans can be good guys.  According to U.S. Army general Barry McCaffrey (ret.), Republican congresspeople cannot be armed because they might murder Joe Biden:

If I was worried about anybody, I'd be worried about gun-carrying Republican congressmen being near the president. They better get them started going through the screening at the door and tell them it's mandatory. I wouldn't trust them within an inch of my life.

The nicest thing I can think to say about that utterly slanderous statement is that McCaffrey, 78, may be showing signs of senile dementia, or perhaps he suffered brain damage during his honorable tours in Vietnam.

Biden had better make good on his campaign promise to unite Americans, because things in D.C. are disintegrating very quickly.

Image: The fence around the Capitol.  YouTube screen grab.