Do Democrats care about the Constitution anymore?

We have a president who demands Americans answer for those who take advantage of our liberalism but refuses to do the same for the illiberal culture that produces jihadists. We have a presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party who won’t even say she believes in a constitutional right to bear arms. We have an administration that ignores the Tenth Amendment to crush states that diverge from progressive orthodoxy on sex-specific bathrooms. The president spent six of his eight years arguing that separation of powers should be circumvented because he was frustrated that constitutional norms would upend his agenda.

People are okay with this. Democrats love to point out that polls show Americans want more gun control or more speech controls, and so Republicans should do something about it. To stand against the majority is to “defy” Americans, Barack Obama likes to say. Even if it were so simple, isn’t this why we have constitutions? To codify rights and protect them from the vagaries of democracy and abusive politicians who will use fear and anger and emotionally blackmail citizens to enact their agenda? Complain about Donald Trump all you like; it’s a big target. But let’s not pretend he’s the only one putting the Constitution and our norms at risk. It’s just that you have different ideas about why these things aren’t important anymore.