Fences may be the dominant metaphor of our time, thanks to a president who fetishizes them.

They are more than metaphor, of course. They are real barriers.

Our fences confine: humans, new immigrants deemed illegal and, in an orgy of profiteering yoked to a racially tilted criminal justice juggernaut, inmates.

They also exclude. Here, again, are immigrants. And new last week, Americans near the People’s House.

As metaphor, fences reflect the animus behind our impulses to confine or exclude. That animus is fear.

Fear of a browner nation. A president says – in a caricature of the truth – that a fence will protect us from hordes of murderers, rapists and drug dealers pushing north.

Fear of citizens peaceably assembling for social justice. A president says – in another caricature – that only militarized force will restore order among protesters trampling property and slowing a return to pre-pandemic economic bliss.

Fear of losing. A president says – equating a few city blocks with a continent-wide nation – that protesters must be forcibly ejected as a marker for the coming election.

Afraid.

And cornered.

Fences of fear.