Trump’s GOP has an ugly authoritarian core

A security surge that has turned the once-open grounds of the U.S. Capitol into a veritable fortress could become a permanent — and to many, discomforting — reality for the nation’s seat of government.

Security experts and longtime Washington officials are grappling with the likelihood, in their view, that the Capitol and other marquee federal buildings will inevitably receive new and significant added layers of security, after a mob overran the Capitol Police in an attack that forced the building’s evacuation and left five people dead.

But the extra precautions are also raising difficult questions about the importance of safety versus the value of an open and accessible seat of government.

“I don’t know if those fences will ever come down again,” said Bill Hoagland, who worked in Congress for more than 30 years before becoming a senior vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center.

“I pray they do come down. But obviously we’re going to need something in addition to what we put up there after 2001,” he said, referring to the Sept. 11 attacks.