The BLUF is that our sagacious and far-seeing leaders seem determined to blithely check off every box in the end-stage cycle of empires to-do checklist, apparently with nary a care in the world.
It is impossible to say what the fire's size and shape will be or what will emerge from the ashes. /6

My preference is a unicameral parliamentary system. Of course, a constitutional convention now would be a disaster. The last phase of power consolidation among dictators is they change the Constitution to ensure their rule. /5

Any system, no matter how well conceived and implemented, can be corrupted by unscrupulous leaders given enough time. Ours didn't make it very hard on them.
I don't think just tacking on even more amendments will work. There is too much core DNA to overcome. /4

Other nations have since codified better governing documents. Ours is clearly long in the tooth and needs a complete rewrite. Its flaws have been exploited to engineer a dictatorship. /3

The Constitution was a compromise document. There were good parts. It was not a first attempt per se, but they had little to go on. Also, slavery, the concessions appeasing States to gain ratification, and hard-coding white male patrician dominance (EC, Senate) into the document were no help. /2

It's when they bring their gobbledygook to the public square and insist I, and the rest of society, live by that gobbledygook that I draw the line.
Jesus is said to have advised people to pray in private. That was perhaps the best religious advice ever. /2

People can believe the Moon King rules the Cosmos from a Moon made of green cheese for all I care - provided they do it in private in their homes of the roughly 400,000 constitutionally protected edifices of worship dotting the land.
/1

The Star Chamber Six enabling the dictatorship will go down in history as the worst failure of the SC. Their many other failures, such as Dred Scott, while horrible, didn't risk the end of the Republic and the Constitution.

One way to do that is to jettison the destructive thinking, rules and structures in our societies that reinforce the patriarchy. Religious institutions should not be immune, as they are the main force propping up the patriarchy. /11

Punitive action, force, or the threat of force are never far away. (e.g. making it illegal to cross state lines to get an abortion.)
There is a fairly broad consensus among social and systems science. The way to improve life on the planet across the board is to - wait for it - empower women! /10

Instead, they simply enjoy being the top dogs and are using the rubric of religion as a mechanism to manipulate, control and coerce others. In the case of the US and others, they even leverage secular state power to create and maintain the system. /9

Well, sorry, screw that. I'm going to call out these and other oppressive and exploitive societal constructs every time.

Women deserve better. Even men deserve better than to live out a stunted life lording over a patriarchy smugly justifying their behavior because they think it's God's work. /8

How this kind of insanity persists in 2025 is truly a marvel. The rest us aren't allowed to criticize any of this crazy stuff because the priestly class has informed us that this is all halo imbued firmly held beliefs. /7

they establish a patriarchy where women are baby making machines whose main task in life is to spread the faith by popping out as many future faithful as possible. The helpful priestly class determined this is all in accordance with the divine plan, so women better play along or else. /6

who, I might add generally do quite well for themselves) but they are to do everything in their power to make sure everyone else (aka the unbelievers/the unenlightened) are brought into the fold. To complement this strategy we get to back what was first discussed: /5

As the old commercial enjoined, "But wait, there is more!"
Not only are they supposed to live every moment of their lives living by the rules set down in those dusty page, (helpfully interpreted by a largely unaccountable often unquestioned priestly class - /4

Interesting history perhaps, but a blueprint for our lives in 2025?

It gets worse of course. (It usually does.) Not only are the adherent to these works to use it as a guidance for life, but they are told to ignore any other life-advice that has come along in the past 3000 years or so./3