Look at the horror of the Civil War. Look at was done in Sherman's March, in the prison camps, during Reconstruction. These monstrosities were not repeated until the Nazis and Communists came along.
You laugh at the present system, you want to discard it because it is "broken" - but you don't even understand what you want to discard. For example, it isn't broken - it's not being used. It's been replaced by a completely different system, and that switcharoo works because people like you would rather fight than learn.
Many people, including my family members, fought and died for this country and its Constitutional protections. To not use them, to let them be ignored and then fight an impossible battle rather than use the enormously valuable gift that is already here simply because people are too lazy to read how their inheritance works, is what is really insane.
But for far too many Americans, dying it preferable to learning. And that is the damn shame of it all - as in shameful.
No it wouldn't. Nobody has the balls to do that. Change your attitude, nobody is following the Constitution anymore, the fear of being nuked is not a good reason to remain part of an empire.