Adam Boulton Diary – What has happened to Washington?
Washington DC, “the Nation’s Capital”, has a melancholy air this election month. Not because “the swamp” has been under relentless attack from President Trump for the past four years, the District is used to shrugging off such attacks. These days it is almost compulsory for candidates to run against Washington, even those, like Joe Biden who have spent many decades here. Though to be fair the former Vice President and Democratic Senator for Delaware doesn’t make a meal of it, mildly promising only to work for all Americans.
The malaise is down to two things: the Covid outbreak and the fear of ugliness on the streets. The white-collar bureaucrats who make up much of the population are taking the fear of contagion very seriously. There is no national lockdown, but many shops, restaurants and cafes are closed indefinitely any way, not least because the most office workers are no longer coming in to work. Mask-wearing is more prevalent than on the streets of London. There are no out-of-town tourists. Remaining visitors to the magnificent free Smithsonian museums are by appointment only. The friends I’ve looked up have only been willing to meet up outside on their porches. They may be being over cautious. DC has a population of only 705,000 and some of the lowest levels of Covid in the US, currently averaging 0.4 deaths and 89.7 new cases per day.
Better safe than sorry is the rule downtown. The plate glass frontages of shops and offices have been boarded up for fear of demonstrations. Donald Trump is barricaded behind specially installed perimeter fences so high that it is impossible to get a clear view of the White House from pavement level.
Breaking with precedent this incumbent has hunkered down in his official residence during this election period rather than return to his home state, which is now Florida in spite of his more than 70 years as a native New Yorker. He has used the White House in a way no president has done before for political purposes during the election campaign. He planned to hold an election night victory party there but that was put off as the early results failed to point to a clear winner.
Trump is to blame for much of the tension after his provocative march through Black Lives Matter demonstrators following the death of George Floyd to brandish the Bible outside St John’s, the so-called Presidents’ church on the corner of Lafayette Square.
This square on the North side of the White House has been a traditional location for protesters, a bit like Parliament Square in London. When I first came here in 1980 it hosted a permanent encampment of homeless Vietnam veterans. It is now sealed off to the public. As a result, with the permission of the Mayor Muriel Bowser, the first two blocks of 16thStreet which runs away northward have been closed to traffic, taken over by BLM demonstrations.
Around half of Washington’s population is black, although gentrification has pushed many people on lower incomes out, especially into Prince George’s County towards Baltimore in Maryland. There is nothing subtle about the dog whistle Trump is sending out with his elaborate security measures.
Reflecting its population DC has three electoral votes. It has one representative in Congress, without full voting right. This is because it is governed directly by the Congress. Because the District is not a state in has no senators, unlike every state which has two each, including Wyoming, for example, which has a smaller population. If DC was a state it would almost certainly return 2 Democratic Senators, probably with minority backgrounds. This explains why DC statehood is generally supported by Democrats and opposed by Republicans. Although the capitals special status has its charms, statehood would be bound to moderate the bias in America’s electoral system which currently works in favour of Republicans. Both George W Bush and Donald Trump were first elected with fewer votes nationwide than their Democratic opponents.
So, in spite of its political gelding, many of the divisive issues across the United States, are also reflected in Washington DC. One unique feature of Election time here is that physical preparations for the inauguration of the new President begin before polling day on the Tuesday after the first Monday of November every four years. The platform where he will be sworn in on 20th January 2021 is already being built as an extension of the Congress building.
Washington’s grudge match with Donald Trump was kicked off on his very first day in office when he sent out his spokespeople to deny the objectively provable reality that far fewer people braved the cold to witness his inauguration than had attended Barack Obama’s first ceremony. It’s been downhill ever since.