The U.S. Constitution, for all its strengths, revered and imitated worldwide, has a fatal flaw. A weakness of Greek-tragedy proportions. The Constitution lacks punishment for those who would violate its terms. Yes, there are avenues of recourse, but these have been neutered and rendered feckless in so many ways.
Politicians these days believe they can get away with anything, right? Graft, bribes, gaslighting, obtaining office by any means legal or otherwise, all-out baldfaced lies, scare tactics, misappropriation of funds ... They'll use the organs of government to assault domestic opposition (not the same as domestic enemies), place them under arrest, strangle their voices by deplatforming, controlling so called "news" media and playing them like stenographers, it has gotten totally out of hand. Why? And what to do about it? Even when they're exposed , red-handed
they seem to skate. Here's why:
The ultimate protection of our "Life, Liberty and pursuit of Happiness"- a way to force government into compliance - is use of force. Our Declaration of Independence recognized and encouraged that "whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it".
That option, which held more meaning right after our bloody founding, has lost some if not all its impact. It's too extreme, too hard, too violent for subtle infringements and little incursions on our liberties. That allows the thousand cuts to build up until they are intolerable acts. Then use of force is too late. We're there now. But there's hope.
What America needs, what our Republic and Constitution need, is strict adherence to a policy of, "No infringement shall be tolerated." Small encroachments like licenses to carry arms or speech codes-must subject people proposing such violations to penalties. Gross infringements like, "We're going to take away your favorite rifle-and of course we'll keep ours," require prison terms. Stiff penalties.