Jon Meacham: A Lot of Us Worried About Confrontation Between Trump and the Constitution, and It Is Coming

EXCERPT:

MEACHAM: "I think you’re right. I think that confrontation is coming. I think a lot of us have worried about it, feared it, and have to hope and make the case, tell the story that you just told, which is that this isn’t some notional thing. This isn’t some idealistic or ideological or, God help us, partisan struggle. The Constitution exists for the reason that other covenants exist. It is to protect ourselves by making sure that other people are protected. That’s what a covenant is. You surrender a certain amount of liberty, a certain amount of agency, in order to have maximum liberty and maximum agency in what is a difficult and fallen world. I mean, that’s what this is. And, you know, one of the things that I think we’ve seen that I don’t want to say I’ve been surprised by, but it’s been particularly vivid, is this notion of, this unfolding example of picking on the weak, not just — picking on the strong is one thing, right, but picking on the weak is part of what the Constitution, part of what the United States was invented to, if not prevent, at least minimize.”