The oath of office is an oath to put the Constitution above all personal interest, and by extension to serve all people well and honorably. Democracy works, because those who wield the powers of public office do so 1) at the will of voters, 2) temporarily, 3) with always active and irreducible accountability to the rule of law. 

The Preamble to the Constitution, the separation of powers—including Articles I, II, and III, along with the Tenth Amendment’s preservation of the authority of the States, and the supervisory and controlling role of juries of citizens—and the whole Bill of Rights, clarify that accountability of public authorities to the rule of law is ongoing and irreducible. 

This means, citizens can and should expect that certain things which are inherently violent, debased, cruel, and unacceptable, will never be done by people holding public office. 

It is just plain wrong to take away affordable access to basic healthcare from anyone, let alone tens of millions of people.

It is wrong to enact laws that condemn tens of thousands of people per year to suffering and death.

It is wrong to use office to breach contracts entered into by the republic, and which protect and uplift tens of millions of people around the world, to recklessly trigger hundreds of thousands of deaths.

This is obviously morally reprehensible; it is also practically wrong, as the effect will be to diminish the reputation, trustworthiness, and strategic influence of the republic, and such actions run against both the letter and spirit of the Constitution.

It is wrong to dismantle the diplomatic capability of the nation, to more easily convert foreign relations into illicit deals with the President.

It is wrong to use the cover of law enforcement to harass and abuse people who criticize government actions.

It is wrong to use the cover of law enforcement to terrorize, detain, and summarily sentence people born in other countries, or to separate and traumatize their families.

It is wrong to siphon money away from vital services to give taxpayers’ money to the wealthiest people in world history.

It is wrong to use federal office to overrule local governments who seek to restrict destructive practices preferred by one’s friends and funders.

It is wrong to use Executive Orders to instruct any person to commit acts that violate basic rights.

It is wrong to grab people off the streets, taking mothers away from children, with no evidence, no warrant, no judicial oversight, and then to detain them indefinitely, deny them counsel, or in the words of the Declaration of Independence, “transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences”.

Yes, summarily sentencing people without due process to confinement in foreign prisons was one of the heinous inhuman crimes the American Revolution was intended to make impossible.

It is wrong to legislate, or otherwise require, that people must breathe polluted air and drink polluted water, eat food polluted with neurotoxins and endocrine disrupting chemicals, confront supercharged natural disasters driven by pollution, and be denied the benefits of best-case early warning insights, basic protection, and the First Amendment right to redress. 

It is wrong to defund programs that provide food for hungry children and education to ensure the republic continues to have an informed citizenry and all people can pursue their best and most hopeful future.

It is wrong to live a life of privilege and protection after a nation of free people welcomed your immigrant parents or ancestors and then to use the powers of office in that same republic to deny that same basic human dignity to other people seeking a better, freer, more humane existence under the protective laws of the United States.

It is wrong to use the platform of office to spread radicalizing and hateful rhetoric or to incite extremists to violence against critics and rivals.

All of these things are deeply, terribly immoral and wrong, and violate the letter and spirit of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and yet, in 2025, these are the things that are being done by those who hold power in the Executive and Legislative branches. 

Every American has a transcendent, irreducible right to be served by a government that does not commit immoral or unlawful acts, to be honored in their humanity by a government that acts with dignity, responsibility, and a devotion to service above all else. 

Part of the genius of America’s founding laws is that the protection of basic rights extends to all people over whom the government of the United States might claim jurisdiction. All human beings are protected against abusive actions by anyone in American government. Rights have primacy over power, always.

Even future generations are explicitly named in the Preamble to the Constitution, which commits all Americans to pass on to posterity “the Blessings of Liberty”. Polluted water, destroyed ecosystems, and climate breakdown, are not blessings. The blessings of liberty are those conditions that allow any person to breathe free, live without fear, and be part of an active part of a self-governing society in which no person can abuse others with impunity.