Nonviolence and Unity in the Defense of the Constitution
by Max Maxwell & Melete
This essay is released under the CC BY-ND 4.0 license and is free to distribute as long as the terms of this license are followed. You can download your own PDF copy of this essay for distribution.
The Republic in Crisis
The Constitution of the United States is under attack, and the enemy is inside the gates. Executive power is breaking the limits of the law. Due process is being eroded. U.S. citizens, naturalized and native-born alike, are now being treated as expendable by unconstitutional policies and lawless actions. The government is testing the boundaries of exile, imprisonment, and the ability to violate our Constitution. Congress will not save us. The military may be unable to act against domestic enemies. The burden of defense now falls to We the People, and we face an important choice: remain passive or stand to support and defend the Constitution. If the people do nothing, then in as little as a year, we will lose every right and freedom we have been taking for granted.
How did we come to this? For decades, we let ourselves be manipulated. We traded the solemn duty of citizenship for childish shouting matches over a manufactured culture war. We hurled insults over imaginary divisions while the real threat, the erosion of the Constitution and the rule of law, grew in the shadows. We let petty rage and irrelevant distractions replace knowledge-based reasoning about issues, turning neighbor against neighbor, all while those in power were gleefully teaching us to fight each other instead of holding them accountable.
Now, the same forces that fed us this culture war poison are moving to dismantle the Constitution itself, taking advantage of a people weakened by the habit of putting emotion over reason. These same forces now seek to conquer a weakened people who have become divided against each other. We betrayed our patriotic duty as we abandoned constitutional principles in our political talk for the thrill of partisan strife. It is time to face our fatal mistake and remember that the values, goals, and principles we share together in our Constitution are what truly bind us together as one American people.
But there is a serious problem. Already, in cities and protests, the anger we have been fed for years is boiling over. The culture war trained us to speak in emotions, not in reason, to act on impulse, not principle. Now, that same unthinking rage is spilling into the streets. The only currency many know is outrage. They act from it, but the habits of culture war outrage cannot defend our Constitution. It cannot build unity or discipline. Instead, we see the predictable results of decades of this corruption. Impulsive acting out: bricks and rocks hurled at federal agents, cars set ablaze, fireworks thrown as weapons, verbal abuse, and physical assaults are now escalating. Officers are attacked, tires are slashed, and buildings are defaced. This chaos is not resistance. It is the final harvest of our culture war foolishness, the natural result of emotion dominating reason, and it is exactly what the emerging tyranny desires. We are playing straight into their hands.
This behavior will not save the Republic. If we descend into the chaos of emotion-driven violence, we will destroy the moral clarity that separates us from those we oppose, abandon a clear focus on principle and purpose that wins public trust, and lose the disciplined conduct this fight demands. We will not only justify harsher repression, but we will hand the enemies of the Constitution exactly what they seek: the political cover to escalate their lawlessness, expand their violence, and further dismantle the very freedoms we must defend.
We must act, but we must act with discipline. Nonviolence is not optional. It is the only strategically effective path forward. If we abandon a principled focus and give in to undisciplined rage and impulsive actions, we will not defend the Constitution. We will surrender it.
Consider what happens when our federal government unlawfully deploys military forces to shut down a peaceful protest that is not in violation of the law. If protesters, expressing their First Amendment right to assembly, begin lashing out with impulsive violence in reaction to being stopped by the military, they will compel those soldiers to react. The protesters end up forcing escalation, initiating a harsher crackdown, and this provides public cover for tyranny’s advance. For soldiers put into the middle of this unconstitutional mess, this is what they were trained to do. Naturally, if they are attacked, they will respond. The anti-constitutional forces within the government would welcome such an outcome because it serves their interests. Chaotic, emotion-driven violence from the people makes the task of undoing our Constitution easier.
Now, imagine another scene. Soldiers arrive, unconstitutionally or otherwise unlawfully deployed,¹ and face a vast crowd of disciplined citizens. The protesters do not hurl rocks. They do not burn cars. They do not vandalize buildings. Instead, they stand firm, unified in purpose, calmly and clearly chanting in protest to an unlawful military presence, “Support and Defend Our Constitution.” Here, the protesters are not threatening the soldiers or public safety. They are not insulting the soldiers with emotional, verbal abuse that is irrelevant to the issues at hand. They are disciplined, peaceful, and respectful, calling out a chant that does not demonize the soldiers but reminds them why they are a soldier.
Such disciplined behavior forces the soldiers to confront their own oaths. It communicates resolve and principle, not chaos and needless provocation. It does not give the soldiers a need to escalate. It exposes who is truly defending the rule of law and who is breaking it.
In this example, if violence occurs, it must come from government-controlled forces, not from the people. The contrast could not be clearer. A movement that maintains nonviolence will be seen as principled, patriotic, and legitimate. To be publicly viewed as the ones defending law and order, not violating it, is a decisive strategic advantage. A movement that descends into chaos will be seen as a threat to public order, giving tyrants the very leverage they seek.
Emotional outbursts and violent acts corrupt our resistance to attacks on our Constitution. They turn us from a disciplined defense of the Constitution into a cesspool of emotive impotence, fueling further government violence, confusing public perception, and erasing the moral and principled clarity that is essential to victory. This is not a theory. It is a fact proven by history.² If we want to prevail, we must hold the high ground in both word and deed.
The choice is upon us now: will we become a force of unity, defending our Constitution and the rule of law in a principled and disciplined manner, or will we descend into over-emotional, irrational conduct that triggers the escalation of tyranny?
Before proceeding, we should make one thing clear. Though it is true that the current administration is violating the Constitution, we must not pretend that the crisis we face was born in a vacuum or by the hand of one party alone. Both major political parties have played their part in this decay. For decades, they have catered more to wealthy donors than to the Constitution they swore to uphold. They fought over narratives that stirred public anger but left the foundations of our Republic to rot. Instead of cultivating disciplined civic speech or teaching Americans the principles of self-governance, both parties fed us a steady diet of grievance and distraction. The culture war was their shared theater, a substitute for real leadership, and a perfect cover for abandoning the values, goals, and principles enshrined in the Constitution. If we are to recover the Republic, we must see clearly: the betrayal is bipartisan, and our loyalty must return not to factions but to the Constitution, to the law that binds us as one people.
We Have Failed Our Patriotic Duty
In order to successfully resist lawlessness, we must stay focused, not on our anger, not on useless issues of conservative and liberal, and not on belittling the people choosing to violate the Constitution as if insulting them will change their course, but on the Constitution itself. The heart of American patriotism has always been the defense of the Constitution. A vow to defend the Constitution is written into every oath sworn by those entrusted with public service. Presidents vow to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." Members of Congress, military recruits, and Supreme Court Justices all swear to "support and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic." From the very beginning of our Republic, loyalty to the Constitution, not to a party, not to a leader, not to a faction, has been the true test of American patriotism.
Supporting and defending the Constitution is not just an option for those loyal to this country; it is the foundation of what it means to be an American. Any talk of love for this country that does not have at its heart the defense of its supreme law is hollow. Real patriotism demands more than flags and slogans; it requires a refusal to cooperate with any violation of the Constitution and the rule of law. It requires resistance against attacks on our Constitution that is clear, disciplined, and principled. It is ridiculous to think we are Making America Great Again by whining about our freedom of speech as if the “war against Christmas” means a damn thing. We do not support the life of the Republic by yammering like trained circus performers about the war between conservatives and liberals.
Real American patriotism demands that we stand up united, bound by the shared values, goals, and principles in our Constitution, and joined as one people willing to stand shoulder to shoulder as we refuse to sit back and passively allow traitors to tear down the Republic. We are duty-bound, as patriotic Americans, to stand against all forms of lawless power, no matter what the cost.
But we have failed to honor the Founders, the fallen, and the sacred promise of this Republic by standing on the sidelines while the rule of law is dismantled. If we are not willing to resist unconstitutional power, to stand in its way, to sacrifice comfort, reputation, or even safety to uphold the Constitution, then our so-called patriotism is nothing but empty theater, a lie. The time for passive, pretend patriotism is over. What remains now is the test of character. And most of us, if we are honest, have been failing it.
Our patriotism has been that of spectators not involved in the game. Most of us do not honor those who died defending this country and its Constitution with the integrity of our own participation in that worthy cause. We have come to think of Memorial Day as a holiday, a time of enjoyment, and the opportunity to get cheaper products at a sale. That’s what we’ve become: distracted, passive consumers and spectators uninvolved in the reality of defending a Republic. We look for cheap rewards on the backs of men and women who bled into foreign dirt, gasped in fields they would never see again or were buried nameless beneath white crosses. We treat their sacrifice like it is nothing more than the gift of a long weekend and the enjoyment of a tasty burger from the grill as if the cost of preserving the Republic is already paid in full, and we need only enjoy the benefits. That is a lie. Their deaths preserved our liberty for only as long as we are willing to do our part to preserve it. But we weren’t. We became spectators, distracted by culture war lies designed to hide the truth of our patriotic duty to unity in defense of our Constitution. We fell asleep at the wheel, passive, comfortable, distracted. We treated the Republic like an entertaining show to comment on, not a sacred inheritance to defend. And now we are beginning to feel the price of that negligence.
The horror of the end of our Republic is only beginning to reveal itself. The Constitution is being violated in plain sight. Our leaders are no longer bound by law, and our institutions are beginning to be dismantled. But too many Americans still behave as if the old rules apply, as if some external force, some adult in the room, will eventually fix it for us. That day will not come. We are out of time.
The blood of those who died in defense of the Constitution does not entitle us to freedom like a coupon we redeem once a year. It calls us to fight, to take a stand, not with hatred, not with lawless rage, but with the courage and discipline that mark those worthy to inherit the name American. The time for passive, misfocused culture war outrage is over. What we face now will require more from us than slogans, votes, or marches. It will require the absolute unity of the left and right, self-sacrifice, a clarity of focus on keeping the Constitution as the supreme law of the land, and the kind of steady, nonviolent strength that is needed to fight unconstitutional evil in ways that do not destroy the Republic.
Now is the time for all good citizens to come to the aid of their Country.
The Path to American Victory
However, we must not corrupt our patriotic duty to our Constitution by entering the fight in a way that turns our defense of the Constitution into another excuse for chaos. This is not a war of passion. It is a test of discipline. Supporting and defending the Constitution is not a mood or a reaction. It is a deliberate stand for the rule of law, even when lawless power provokes us. Real patriotism is not driven by revenge or grievance; it is measured by faithfulness to the constitutional order we are trying to preserve. And in that struggle, nothing is more focused, more strategically sound, or more true to the American promise than nonviolence, not as passivity, but as principled defiance.
We must not fight lawlessness with lawlessness, but have the will to stand peacefully together, united and resolute. A powerful support of our Constitution does not seek to inflict suffering on others, but to oppose tyranny and to suffer if needed for the principles of law we defend. It must be determined that the Republic will not die on our watch, and we will not contribute to its demise with our own violence and lawlessness. When practiced with clarity and restraint, nonviolence isolates and exposes the lawlessness of the enemies of our Constitution, strengthens public trust, and reveals tyranny for what it is. If we allow violence to define our resistance, we will not be defending the Constitution; we will be helping to bury it.
The modern imagination clings to the myth that power only comes through violence. But power has never belonged only to those who can inflict pain. There is another kind of force, the force of collective will, of disciplined resolve, of people who stand firm in defense of the Constitution even when it costs them. Violence mimics the logic of domination; it borrows the tools of the very systems it claims to resist. And like all imitations, it eventually exposes its own weakness. You do not fight a fire by feeding it. You do not defeat lawlessness by becoming lawless. Violence may feel like action, but in reality, it is a strategic failure.
Injustice thrives when the story becomes unclear. Every act of violence by protestors shifts the public eye from the principle being defended to the chaos being unleashed. It hands the enemies of the Constitution exactly what they want: a public too burdened with conflicting data to see clearly, a cause too tainted to trust, and just enough disorder to justify another wave of repression. We saw it in Los Angeles. Protesters, enraged and undisciplined, set fire to cars and assaulted officers. The story was no longer about the unlawful deployment of force by the government. It was about the violence of the crowd. In a single day, the focus shifted from constitutional resistance against government lawlessness to the chaos of violence and public fear. Tyranny could not ask for a better gift. If you want proof that violence by the people serves the interests of the government, consider this: the government has a history of wanting violence in unwanted protest movements. It has used infiltrators and provocateurs to incite violence deliberately, not to stop the movement, but to discredit it in the public eye. The FBI’s COINTELPRO program (Counter-Intelligence Program, 1950s–1970s) offers clear examples. This is nothing new.
This is why violence does not win. It ruins public clarity, destroys strategic focus, and erases the distinction between defender and aggressor. We must be seen and be the ones who uphold the law, who keep faith with the Constitution, who are willing to suffer for it without resorting to the tools of repression ourselves. That is how movements win. Not by satisfying the emotion of the moment, but by disciplining it. Not by imitating power, but by exposing illegitimacy. The Republic will not be saved by who hits harder. It will be saved by who stands firmer, longer, and in the light of day. Violence doesn’t win. It distracts, it confuses, it fails. And failure is something this movement cannot afford.
It is not enough to reject violence in theory. We must now ask how to stand in the presence of government lawlessness without imitating it. That means moving beyond the comfort of spectator commentary and into the crucible of action. The days of passive spectatorship are over. The Constitution will not be preserved by those who rest in the safety of treating politics as a sport or a spectacle. It will be preserved by those who are willing to stand in the fire, to face arrest, tear gas, ridicule, imprisonment, and remain steadfast. This is what the best of the Civil Rights movement taught us. Their victory was not the result of moral superiority alone, but of rigorous preparation, practiced discipline, and cultivated inner strength. If we are to resist the rising tide of unconstitutional lawlessness without becoming what we oppose, we must learn what principles and practices made the Civil Rights Movement successful.
The E Pluribus Unum Toolkit:
Our essay, E Pluribus Unum, Defending the Constitution, Conserving American Heritage, is a toolkit for Americans interested in defending the Constitution of the United States. This toolkit has 13 sections.
Section 8, How to Find the Courage and Skills to Resist Unconstitutional Lawlessness Without Violence, begins the work of learning from the Civil Rights movement. Read it carefully. Let it break you open and begin to rebuild what duty now demands. Here are the first two paragraphs of that Section,
"The people of the United States need only look to the history of Black America to see what it truly means to stand for justice in the face of overwhelming force, to defend the rule of law with no hope of physical or military victory, and to protect the Constitution from those who seek to discard it. Those American civil rights demonstrators who have marched through fire, who have faced the batons and the bullets, who have stood firm when the weight of oppression sought to break them, they have shown us what real American patriotism looks like. It is not found in empty words, memes, or slogans. It is not found in blind allegiance to individuals or parties. Real American patriotism is found in the relentless pursuit of a nation that honors its Constitution's founding promise.
If we are to save the Constitution from those who refuse to uphold it, we must follow the best examples of the civil rights movement. We must defend the Constitution and the rule of law, not with hatred, not with violence against our own nation, but with an unyielding devotion to the principles that make America worth defending. Injustice thrives when good people believe they are too small to resist it, but history tells a different story. The powerless can be the ones to shake the world. The nameless and the overlooked can be the ones to remind a nation of its soul."
You can read Section 8 of the E Pluribus Unum tool kit here:
How to Find the Courage and Skills to Resist Unconstitutional Lawlessness Without Violence
What is the E Pluribus Unum Tool kit?
E Pluribus Unum is a working toolkit for anyone serious about defending the Constitution in a time of national fracture. It offers a clear framework for understanding the value of the Constitution, what it requires from the people, how we got to the brink of political collapse, and how to recover our shared foundation. The essay traces the path of civic decay into understandable elements: the rise of culture war thinking, the loss of disciplined political speech, the betrayal of constitutional values, and the dangerous slide into reactive violence.
It teaches readers how to respond. It outlines strategic, nonviolent methods of resistance, redefines patriotism around constitutional loyalty rather than partisan allegiance, and shows how disciplined, morally anchored action can still command public respect and disarm tyranny. Most importantly, it shows what kind of personal transformation is required for citizens to support and defend their Constitution from tyranny.
For anyone ready to move from frustration to focused resistance, from complaint to constructive defense of liberty, E Pluribus Unum offers the map. It is a call to courage, clarity, and intelligent action, and it arms the reader with a way forward.
If you want good information on exactly why the Constitution of the United States, the foundation of all American Heritage, must be saved at all costs, read Sections 1-6 of the tool kit, which are the E Pluribus Unum essay itself.
The Table of Contents for the E Pluribus Unum Tool kit:
1. The Failure of American Politics
2. The Constitution is the Primary Foundation of American Heritage
3. Real American Patriotism Supports and Defends the Constitution
4. If they Kill The Constitution You Will Lose Every Right and Freedom That You Took for Granted
5. Real American Hope in Dangerous Times
6. A CALL TO UNITY on the ground of our Constitution
7. Walking the Talk: Support and Defend the Constitution from Domestic Enemies Without Violence
Ideas on what to do to resist unconstitutional lawlessness
8. How to Find the Courage and Skills to Resist Unconstitutional Lawlessness Without Violence
Draws richly off the experience and practices of the very successful Civil Rights Movement
9. Christianity and Non Violent Resistance to Lawlessness
Christians have a powerful advantage when they participate in non-violent encounters
10. Use Nonviolence as a Strategy
Education and training resources for using nonviolence as a strategy
11. Quotes of the Founding Fathers and Lincoln
12. Countering Anti Constitution Arguments
This section provides simple counterarguments to stop glib dismissals of the Constitution.
13. How to Recognize Useless and Harmful Political Talk
This section has a very powerful diagnosis of 16 ways culture war talk is easily recognized as bad.
Regarding Section 13, the whole culture war is a lie designed to hide the truth of American heritage. The truth is that the left and right, conservative and liberal, all stand together on extraordinary common ground because they share the fundamental values, goals, and principles of our Constitution. There should be extraordinary unity between conservatives and liberals because the foundation of all American heritage, the source of all American greatness, is our Constitution. Recognizing worthless culture war talk, which has removed the people from the power of their own political participation, is an essential skill. This section demonstrates how 16 defects in culture war talk reveal its worthlessness.
Example:
"When one-word labels replace real thinking:
Would you let a mechanic say your engine is “bad” without explaining why? Or let a doctor say your condition is “weird” and send you home? No, real professionals diagnose with clarity. So when someone says “woke,” “socialist,” or “conservative” like it's a diagnosis, without explaining the specifics, you're not hearing politics, you're hearing lazy, empty noise. The most popularly used culture war labels work like a replacement for thinking. An excellent way to avoid this error in our political talk is to discuss issues and solutions directly as we would with any practical art or trade. If we give up using the most commonly used reason and conversation-killing terms: Republican, Democrat, left, right, conservative, and liberal, we free ourselves to focus on the values, goals, and principles we share in the Constitution. We can focus on the issues directly, hearing deeply, reasoning powerfully, and serving our nation productively."
There are 15 other defects of useless political talk in this section. The conclusion of this section states an obvious and common-sense take on American political talk. This is how we get back on track with our own political talk, remaining focused, ending the Culture War, and talking politics for real. In any movement to resist unconstitutional lawlessness, effective political talk is absolutely necessary. Here is the conclusion of Section 13:
"If a political conversation doesn't feel like solving a problem with a good mechanic, an honest teacher, a clear-eyed doctor, or a skilled craftsman, then we are not hearing politics. We're hearing propaganda. It is much better to talk about the political issues of the nation in the same way we know we would have to talk about our work, rather than use the issue-avoiding culture war style of political talk. We don't fix a roof by yelling at the rain. We don't diagnose a patient by blaming another doctor. We don't finish a lesson plan by mocking the students who don't already understand. In every useful trade, whether we're tuning an engine, laying a foundation, repairing a circuit, or caring for the sick, we focus on the structure of the problem, not the personality of the person next to us. We use real vocabulary, ask real questions, and listen for real answers. That's what responsible problem solvers do when something matters. And politics matters. So if our political talk doesn't sound like the kind of serious, respectful, problem-solving conversation we would have in our profession or craft, it's not helping our country, it's just helping someone else sell us noise."
_______
For those who claim to walk in the way of Christ, the path of nonviolent resistance should not be unfamiliar. Its requirements, self-restraint, courage under pressure, faithfulness in the face of injustice, are not foreign to the Christian tradition; they are its foundation. Christians who step into the fight to defend the Constitution from lawlessness do not need to abandon their faith to stand firm. On the contrary, they need only remember what it truly demands. If you are among those who want to resist without losing your soul, who want to act with power without resorting to rage, then the next section of E Pluribus Unum, Christianity and Nonviolent Resistance to Lawlessness, is for you. Read it not as a detour from the Gospel, but as a deeper return to it.
Read:
8. Christianity and Non-Violent resistance to lawlessness
For those serving in the military, you know what it means to take an oath, not to a party, not to a person, but to the Constitution of the United States. You have trained with discipline and stood ready to face foreign threats with courage. That same courage is now needed in another way. The threats before us are no longer distant. They are here, creeping into our laws, our institutions, our command structures. Now is the time to remain vigilant, to recognize when unconstitutional and unlawful orders betray the Republic you swore to serve, and to remember that your highest duty is to the Constitution itself. In moments of confusion, your faithfulness may be an important part of the final safeguarding of American liberty.
Conclusion:
We Must Have a New Birth of American Truth and Duty
The Republic will not be saved by those who wait to be inspired. It will be saved by those who choose to act, not with rage, not with the empty gestures of patriotic sloganeering, but with disciplined resolve, moral clarity, and an unshakable faith in the Constitutional principles that made this nation worth defending in the first place.
We now stand in the shadow of failure, facing the real possibility that this generation could allow the American experiment to collapse, not because we were overpowered, but because we were distracted, undisciplined, divided, carried out our politics in ignorance of American tradition, and were unwilling to pay the price of true fidelity to our American heritage. But it is not too late to join together as a united people under our Constitution. If we learn to speak with informed purpose, to protest with disciplined precision, and to stand with the quiet power of unity and sacrifice, we can still recover what has been lost. We can still show the world that the Constitution lives, not on paper alone, but in the character of a people who refuse to let it die.
We must reject the cheap comforts of spectacle politics and culture war fantasy. We must become more and better than angry spectators. We must become the guardians of the Republic, citizens who think clearly, speak carefully, and act fearlessly, and peaceably. If we do this, we will no longer be at the mercy of chaos. We will become a disciplined force for constitutional order, and a living rebuke to lawlessness in every form.
Let this be the generation that remembers what patriotism really means. Let it be the generation that learned to fight without hate, to resist without violence, and to stand firm, focused, and unbreakable, in defense of liberty and law. And let every citizen, from every walk of life, be counted in that number.
You do not have to be perfect to take the first step. But you must be willing to become better than you have been. Begin now. Learn the values, goals, and principles of your Constitution. Let supporting and defending the Constitution be your pathway to Make America Great Again. End the Culture War. Be united as one people with all those wanting to defend the Constitution. If they are willing to bleed and suffer to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, they are not your enemy. They are your fellow citizens, and we are on the same side. The Republic is calling. Answer it.
_________________
Other Essays By Max Maxwell & Melete
The Guardians of American Greatness is a poignant reminder of the necessity for the people to take a stand and describes the true path of honoring those who have died for us.
The Infantilization of the American Citizen: Newspeak and The Art of the Steal is a detailed account of how US political talk has been severely corrupted in ways that match the treatment of language and thought in George Orwell’s novel, 1984. This essay is also included in the downloadable PDF found in the E Pluribus Unum Toolkit.
The Beauty of the Conservative Mind is a defining look at Conservatism and how it was corrupted in the United States. This essay is also included in the downloadable PDF found in the E Pluribus Unum Toolkit.
Consumerist Politics: The Rotten Fruit of Abandoning Civic Virtue is a look at how American consumerism played a fundamental role in the corruption of our politics.
________________
Footnotes:
¹ The unconstitutionality or other unlawfulness of a federal military deployment could arise as a matter of violating First Amendment Rights, a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, a violation of the separation of powers, transgressing Insurrection Act limitations, an abuse of Title 10, or as a violation of due process concerns.
² Historically, oppressive regimes have relied on protester violence to justify repression. Gandhi warned during his successful campaign against the British Empire, "If, on the other hand, the people resort to violence, they will merely be playing into the hands of the Government." (Young India, 1920). British authorities often sought such provocation. Likewise, Dr. King’s success came from nonviolence, not retaliation. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. taught that nonviolence was an essential strategy of the civil rights movement shook a nation's conscience.
Excellent essay! All I can add is that many Republicans argue that the US Constitution has been under attack by Democrats ever since the presidency of W. Wilson. Also, many of them claim that the Constitution was never written to protect non-whites.