2 February, 2021 By Erich Dunkelberger

Siege mentality is a shared feeling of victimization and defensiveness, a term derived from the actual experience of military defenses of real sieges. Cities would erect a wall around the town to keep to keep out invaders. Sometimes, the walls were meant to forestall outraged citizens. Fortified cities were quite common in Europe and elsewhere. There was a prominent example in the Old Testament, the city of Jericho. At this point in time, Washington DC could be added to the list of walled cities.

After it became evident that people weren’t going to just accept the election results, the Mayor of Washington DC, Muriel Bowser, decided her city needed additional protection. She put the DC National Guard on alert, but didn’t deploy them. On the 6th of January of this year, the day of the “certification” of the election, there was planned a rally protesting voter fraud, with President Trump speaking. We all know what happened after that. Of course, there are vastly different versions of what happened. Democrats and the media say it was the Trump supporters that entered the Capitol building. Timelines show that supporters who stayed for Trump’s speech, couldn’t have been there for another 45 minutes to an hour. Witnesses saw Capitol Police let a group of people through barricades about the time Trump started speaking. It was discovered that the assault wasn’t spontaneous, but pre-planned. But, I digress. I’m sure much of this will be explained next Monday.

After that day, National Guard troops were deployed in earnest. The inauguration was two weeks away. In short order, there was 15,000 troops on the ground in Washington DC. Barricades became fences topped with concertina wire. Check points popped up everywhere. Military vehicles and police cars were the most prevalent vehicles most times of the day. The Capitol City was a fortress. Still, nearby businesses boarded up windows and doors. Trouble was expected. Numbers for troops went up to around 25,000. All this protection in spite of the fact that the inaugural was most virtual.

The inauguration came and went without much ado. That was almost two weeks ago. The walls are still up. The National Guard is still deployed. There are some accounts that more NG troops are arriving. The Mayor wants her city back, with a little bit of augmentation of security forces, but Congress wants the protection. Why? I think we can rule out invasion from foreign powers, at least for now. The only thing left is fear of Americans with pitchforks laying siege for acts perpetrated against them and the US Constitution. The question remains; if we had a fair election and Biden won the most votes in history, why all the fear? I say Siege Mentality!

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