This desire to return back to the Constitution is blocking a proper critique of how terribly problematic the Constitution is, and how terribly problematic the interpretation of the Constitution has been over the past several decades. When you have a nostalgia, 'let's return to the Constitution, let's return to the rule of law before this-or-that event,' and you have it paired with a desire to 'put politics aside,' what you have is a rather conservative and reactionary fantasy life that has somehow implanted itself in the American liberal left.

Law scholar Jack Jackson explains how the American right seized power beyond law - as conservatives advance a multi-decade agenda attacking constitutional principles with constitution power, the liberal class's retreat from politics leave them at best bystanders to an apocalyptic political project with no future beyond brutality.

Jack is author of the book Law Without Future: Anti-Constitutional Politics and the American Right from University of Pennsylvania Press.