What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. While it lies there it needs no constitution, no law, no court to save it.

— Hon. Billings Learned Hand

When we have devolved to “tit for tat” when we’re no longer looking for liberty and justice. There is nothing our Constitution can do, there isn’t some magic arrangement of words written by long dead men that saves us, that saves our notions of liberty and justice.

It will not be denied, that power is of an encroaching nature, and that it ought to be effectually restrained from passing the limits assigned to it.

— James Madison (Federalist 48)

James Madison is talking about power-grabs here. He’s stating that, there’s never going to be some magic law written down on paper that’s going to stop power-grabs. People, the people we put into to power, the people who have the trust of the public. People That’s it. That’s all there is. That’s the only thing that stops it. And when the people aren’t there to stop it…

You cannot.

This is why this kind of talk is dangerous. This is why making it personal and not looking to protect the public is bad. Because, like it or not, people like DeSantis, if they’re not defending this nation, if they are simply looking to “tit for tat” to make some sort of point. They hold a mighty amount of trust and they’re using it to be on the look out for retribution rather justice.

There aren’t any magic words in the Constitution, it’s inside our heads that matters. This is the stuff that starts getting sobering.