[Congressman Billybob]

You are absolutely right, my friend,

The Framers wrote at the time that the balance of powers they put in the Constitution would be upset "if two branches of the government conspired to usurp the power of the other." They did not anticipate that all three branches of the government would conspire to usurp the Constitution itself, which happened in the passage and then upholding of the McCane-Feingold CFR law.

John / Billybob

[Bigun]

They did not anticipate that all three branches of the government would conspire to usurp the Constitution itself...

How could they? WHY would they anticipate such a thing given the context of THEIR time?

I find the following quote to be quite comprehensive in the context of OUR time.

"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." - James Madison