We're experiencing in real time exactly what the framers most feared. When you clear away the smoke, clear away the DOGE, the executive orders, forei… - Angus King

Jefferson said the states are the laboratories of democracy. But the problem is, nobody reads the lab reports. We've got every state trying to reinvent everything. I was struck even more so after this trip how little exchange there is among states that are coping with exactly the same issues.

We began our careers here with the following words, "I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic." When each of us arrived here in the Senate, we took this oath to support and defend the constitution and as it says against all enemies foreign and domestic. I think it's interesting that the framers concede that there might be domestic enemies to the constitution. Our oath was not to the Republican Party, not to the Democratic Party, not to Joe Biden, not to Donald Trump, but our oath was to defend the constitution. And right now — right now literally at this moment that constitution is under the most direct and consequential assault in our nation's history. An assault not on a particular provision but on the essential structure of the document itself. It's hard to grasp what is happening because of all the events that are swirling around us over the last several weeks. It's coming from so many different quarters and so many different actors. It's hard to get a picture of what's really happening fundamentally. But this is an assault, and how we respond to it will define our life's work, our place in history, and the future of our country. None of us will ever face a greater challenge.

I always had a kind of Myth of Cincinnatus idea about politics — that public service was something you do for a while in between stints at real life. And when your time is up, you return to the plow, which is hopefully still somewhere close to where you left it.