The hope and conviction of the ex-president stood in contrast to the mood on Washington’s streets
The streets of downtown Washington DC are lined with plywood. Shops, restaurants, banks, spas and gyms have all boarded up their windows. The capital looks like a city reeling from some economic calamity or preparing for a natural disaster. But behind the wooden screens, Washington’s swanky shops and expensive restaurants are still very much open. Little signs on the plywood boards direct customers to plywood doors and at tables, outside boarded-up restaurants, diners place their orders and drink their coffee. Despite outward appearances, it is business as usual in DC – or at least what passes for usual in 2020.
Most of the plywood boards went up towards the end of October, not in the wake of an economic crisis but out of fear of a looming political one. Business owners in Washington, like those in other US cities, came to the not unreasonable conclusion that violence and civil unrest might erupt in the aftermath of this month’s bitterly divisive elections. The unspoken presumption that in the United States, the world’s oldest democracy, elections will pass off peacefully has manifestly evaporated.
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