The Executive has (and let's be fair here — also the congress, and the judiciary, and state officials have) repeatedly demonstrated either a complete disrespect for, or absolute misunderstanding of, the constitution.

From the inversion of the commerce clause, ex post facto laws at both the federal and state levels, sweeping usurpation of article 5 powers via the judiciary, to blatant violations of the 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th and 14th amendments, our government is — at best — operating in an unauthorized fashion, wielding powers it was never granted by the people, and ignoring its obligation to protect the rights it was explicitly charged with protecting in return for being allowed to operate at all.

The president, congress, and the supreme court — and a considerable number of state officials — have grievously violated their oaths. If they were military personnel, by now they would have been sanctioned for failing to honor those oaths; they'd be in the stockade (at the very least.) Unfortunately, there is no mechanism in the constitution that provides for holding these people to their word, or which ensures they act with honor.

Most American citizens are either in denial, or simply so uninformed that they don't realize that first, the mechanism that establishes and legitimizes the government is the constitution, and second, that without proper compliance with the document, they are being ruled by people who can, and are, taking any action they choose to — just like any tin-pot dictator.

When those actions are perceived as good, the people cheer — such as when the result is a check arriving at the door. When they are bad, people grumble — such as when the government decides to give a bunch of the citizens' money to banks that were acting illegally and only in their own self-interest. But it is a rare citizen indeed who can quote you the constitution and tell you if the action was authorized. That illuminates a huge failing in our system of education. What can we do?

If there were only some way we could put a president in place that actually respected the constitution instead of playing the same old tired game of politics as usual, so there would be a constant national conversation about the constitution and what it actually is there for. Some candidate who would veto unconstitutional legislation, and apply public pressure to the system to enter an era where the government works the way the citizens intended for it to work.

Does anyone think we can really get our country back from the malefactors who now comprise our government?