from Charles C.W. Cooke in The National Review, Our Presidents Are Beginning to Act Like Kings

Which is all to say that, pace Woodrow Wilson & Co., the recipe for political liberty is as it ever was. For men to be free, the law must be difficult to change, and it must be changed only by those whom we send to represent us; it must be universal and comprehensible in its application; it must be limited in its scope (by both hard rules and soft conventions); and it must be contrived, executed, and overseen by parties whose specialized functions are clearly set apart from one another. These conventions took a long time to develop, and they will take a long time to forget. But if they are circumvented often and egregiously enough, forgotten they will eventually be. There is always a crown beyond the horizon.

HKO

While the early Progressives saw the Constitution as an  obstacle to necessary government action rather a protection of individual or natural rights, they focused on the mechanics of government the Constitution enshrined rather than the underlying beliefs that led them to that structure.  By shredding the mechanics, they undermined their philosophy of government as well and unleashed the very power they sought to contain.

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