There is a legal prerequisite to holding public office in America, one that is rampantly violated.  That prerequisite is that any candidate or appointee to public office, in order to be permitted to take office, must take an oath of office.  The taking of that oath must be done honestly, free of perjury, and without reservation, by which the taker of the oath affirms his unequivocal intention to support and defend the Constitution of the United States.  But violation of the oath is so commonplace that, if it could be sold by the bottle, the proceeds would be enough to pay off the national debt.

Who violates the oath of office?  Violation of the oath is so widespread that it would be easier to compile a list of those who do not violate it than of those who do.  Jurists, executives, legislators, bureaucrats of every stripe, and law enforcement officers violate the oath.  Sworn officeholders of all kinds violate it, even some who have the reputation of being "constitutionalists."

For example, United States senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who has been labeled by some as a firm constitutionalist, has violated the oath of office.  Cruz voted to pass Senate Resolution 118, which condemned so-called "hate crimes," on April 5, 2019, the statements of which reflect a clear disdain for the rights of Americans and for the lawful limits of delegated power placed by the Constitution on legislators.  It also asks law enforcement officials to investigate and prosecute Americans who exercise their First Amendment right to criticize that which they find reprehensible.  (All 100 senators voted in favor of the resolution.)

Cruz is not the worst violator, but just one among thousands.  It is far easier to find a violator of the oath than to find a keeper of it.  And violations come in all varieties.

A commonplace variety of violation seen in recent years is the attempt, whether successful or not, to infringe the right to bear arms.  Violation of the oath is so normal that even candidates for elected office campaign on the basis of promises to, once elected, commit acts prohibited by law to infringe unalienable rights.

Passage of certain gun control laws clearly violates the Constitution.  But the trend to infringe continues with impetus, supported even by some officials who claim to be conservatives.  Even discussion of committing such violations is a reflection of disdain for law, for rights, and for the oath.  Yet several states have passed unlawful measures that clearly go against the Constitution.

Another commonplace variety of violation has involved the apparent desire of officials to normalize the acceptance of certain ideologies, the tenets of which call for violation of constitutional law and the constitutional order of American society.  They would like to obligate us to tolerate that which is designed to destroy what they have sworn to support and defend.  And if we reject that proposition, they say we are bigoted and should be charged with crimes.

In essence, those officials intend to prevent Americans from exercising their right to object to what is intolerable, while diminishing their ability to oppose incursions into totalitarian tyranny, as they shift the American sociopolitical reality ever closer to a Marxian-Mohammedan Dystopia.  What could go wrong?

Public officials and others who hold sworn office must keep the oath of office in order to remain eligible.  That is the law.  But the oath and the law have become laughingstocks, things of ridicule and contempt.  No one who takes, administers, or witnesses the oath expects it to be kept.

See what American government has become: a swamp inhabited by deceptive, hypocritical frauds, swindlers, and traitors, dedicated to self-enrichment, self-aggrandizement, and the demise of the republic.