The panic merchants at Jezebel have discovered the latest constitutional crisis.
No, it isn’t inflation. It isn’t the national debt. It isn’t China’s growing influence, political violence, or the fact that Congress somehow manages to spend money faster than a teenager with a parent’s credit card. According to a recent Jezebel article, the latest threat to the Republic is a proposed security fence near Lafayette Square.
Trump’s latest vanity project idea involves erecting a permanent square around Lafayette Square, a space used by protesters since the early 1900s https://t.co/cnu2BL8sv4
— Jezebel (@Jezebel) June 19, 2026
The article argues that plans to install a more permanent fencing system around portions of Lafayette Square would restrict access to one of Washington’s most historic protest sites. To make its case, Jezebel walks readers through more than a century of demonstrations, from suffragettes and veterans to civil rights activists and LGBTQ protesters.
Lafayette Square has a long history as a gathering place for people who want to make their voices heard.
What follows, however, is quite a leap. A discussion about a proposed security fence quickly becomes another warning that America is sliding toward authoritarianism.
A Fence Becomes Fascism
Jezebel eventually arrives at this conclusion:
“Maybe all this should come as no surprise, given the administration seems to want to launch us back to the 19th century, a time of firing squads, tradwives were wives, and when everyone was dying of measles.”
Lord have mercy.
The article begins with a proposed fence near Lafayette Square and somehow ends in the nineteenth century. That is quite a journey for a story about fencing.
At some point, the fence stopped being the story and became a vehicle for every grievance Jezebel had lying around the office. I suspect the Republic can survive a gate.
The Curious Case Of Selective Fencing
Reading Jezebel, you would think Washington had never seen a fence before.
In reality, Lafayette Square has been fenced off before, the Capitol has been fenced off before, and the White House has literally had fences around it since the Jefferson administration.
Washington was surrounded by fencing after January 6, and much of it remained for months. Curiously, many of the people who now view a proposed White House fence as a threat to democracy seemed far less troubled by barriers around Congress.
Apparently, some fences protect democracy while others destroy it.
When Everything Is A Constitutional Crisis
One of the unintended consequences of constant alarmism is that people eventually stop listening.
If every election is the most important election of our lifetime, the phrase loses its meaning. If every policy dispute becomes a threat to democracy, voters begin to suspect that perhaps not every policy dispute is actually a threat to democracy.
The United States has survived a Civil War, two World Wars, the Great Depression, Watergate, disco, and Congress. It will almost certainly survive a fence.
Americans can debate public access, security, and protest rights without treating a proposed gate near Lafayette Square as the final battle for the future of the Republic.
Then again, if you work at Jezebel, every fence apparently comes with its own constitutional crisis.
Feature Image: AI-generated illustration.
