Dear Founders of the United States of America, authors of the Constitution:

You put your very best effort into creating a binding document that would see us through every possible situation that could destroy the country.

Alas, you failed to consider the possibility that one party could gain so much power and be so lacking in morality that they could give carte blanche to presidential, legislative, and judicial corruption.

And that corruption pretty much burned up that document you tried so hard to make as perfect as humanly possible.

I don't blame you, however. You were idealists [mostly] and believed that while a few people could be corrupt and do some damage, you spread the power across 3 institutions, believing no one could possibly take over all those institutions and make them bend to the will of a demagogue and his foreign puppeteers.

You believed that most people who went into public service would be moral, & would conscientiously ensure that lawbreaking--once discovered and proven--would and could be punished, and no single group of politicians would ever have enough power to render your lovely constitution superfluous.

That was such a lovely thought. I believed it, and so did the majority of others.

Neither we nor you could see how deeply venal the majority who run this country from president on down could possibly become. Of course, you did know that the wealthiest could present a problem, but you thought the separation of powers and the election process would keep it from getting so bad it could turn your constitution into kindling for a bonfire.

You didn't anticipate a SCOTUS, and certainly not a Chief Justice, who would look past what you so obviously feared that they could say, with straight faces, "Corporations are people, too."

And by that enable those with the most dollars to win enough power to take over.

I pray we are able to find the strength and the wherewithal and the moral compass to reclaim democracy from the wealthy, who have stolen it.

I don't believe in an afterlife, but if perchance you ARE hanging about out there, please help us!

If we fall, it is likely that the rest of the world's democracies will fall shortly after.

And your dream of a lasting democracy will be dust.