The early colonials had more than a passing acquaintance with Cicero. Yeah, Marcus Tullius Cicero. Even people like Daniel Boone, but especially ALL of the Founding Fathers.
The Pilgrims Progress was read by frontiersmen. The Bible was also regularly read by these men who also hunted and farmed and ran businesses and came up with new ideas for a republic based on what they’d read of Greek and Roman history.
The influence of “the great books of the western world” on the terminology, thought process, and decisions of the Founding Fathers is enormous. One of the BIGGEST problems today is that there are few Congress Critters who have read Cicero’s “The Republic and the Laws”
And as far as a SCOTUS goes, NO ONE should be allowed to sit on that high court who does not have a working knowledge of Latin and who has not read most of the same books that our Founding Fathers had read as well as the books written by our Founding Fathers.
I think we can salvage the USofA . . . but it will take effort and perseverance and a boat-load of prayers. And WE (you and I) would do well to read up on Cicero, too.
Your entire post is the best I have seen on FR in years. My hat is off to you.