Read any Plato?
As for the laws, understand that we have not only a federal government, but state governments as well. Traditionally, most everyday law enforcement has been done at a state level. States were always supposed to have “police powers.”
They could make whatever laws they wanted for the most part and enforce them. The feds stayed out of all of this except in certain limited circumstances. More and more though, we keep having federal criminal laws added to the books and the feds have taken an increasing role in enforcing laws against conduct the states already have laws against that they enforce. I think that a lot of this is redundant and unnecessary. If the states can handle it, let them. If it's an area where the feds have sole responsibility, that needs to be their priority. For example, every time I hear about ICE officers not picking up criminal aliens in our local jails to deport them it makes me angry because I know that the ICE officers will say they lack resources to pick these people up and I know we have federal law enforcement working other areas of law the states already have covered who could be reassigned to help get criminal aliens already in our jails deported. I think federal resources should be concentrated in areas where the feds have sole responsibility.
Another thing that irks me is when the feds get involved in things like professional sports. I'll see something on TV about Congress wasting all this time arguing about professional baseball and it just infuriates me. What the heck is the federal government doing getting involved in professional sports? Is this the sort of thing our founding fathers intended the feds to get involved in? It's a minor point I know, but it's just another of many examples of the federal government getting off track and getting involved with something they have no business being involved with, in my opinion. I want my federal tax dollars to go toward something useful, something worthwhile’ toward the things the federal government is supposed to be handling. When they squander our money it puts us in positions like we're in right now where the federal government owes something like $11 trillion dollars. Massive debt is the kind of thing that makes a country go the way of the Soviet Union. That's why we have to get it under control.
As for Plato, I haven't read anything he wrote in a long time, but I do recall not agreeing with him that being ruled by a tyrant would be better than a bad democracy. He was no fan of democracy. He favored instead philosopher kings, even though he knew that they would often end up being just tyrants. He worried too much for my tastes about the people having too much freedom. I'd rather live in a democracy that prizes freedom. I like that we have fifty small experiments in democracy in this country. I like that our founding fathers had the wisdom to try to limit the powers of the federal government and keep it small and out of the way of the people and the states for the most part. I'd like to see the federal government start paring back and concentrating on the things our forefathers wanted them to concentrate on. If they continue to expand and spend more and more money I don't think this country will last that much longer.