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Start with one clause. Not a meme, not a slogan—one sentence of the Constitution read slowly, with a pen in your hand. That’s the spirit of this conversation with Walt Blackman, a combat veteran and former legislator who pairs blunt truth with practical civic steps, and who uses ADA‑recognized AI to steady his message while living with a service‑connected TBI. We move from the blast that reshaped his brain to the blueprint that shapes our republic, and we confront how “We the People” morphed from covenant into cudgel in a culture that rewards volume over virtue.

Together, we unpack the Preamble—justice beyond mere law, tranquility without enforced silence, common defense against foreign threats and internal decay, general welfare as a shared good, and liberty as an inheritance tied to responsibility. Walt traces how those ideals get warped when the Constitution becomes a Rorschach test: rights untethered from duties, domestic peace recast as opponent suppression, and liberty confused with the sanctification of self-interest. He maps the real hazards of constitutional drift—executive overreach during crises, judicial abdication masked as restraint, and legislative delegation that hands unelected agencies the power to write, enforce, and judge their own rules.

Drawing on Washington, Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson, Walt calls out betrayal dressed up as purity and skewers the performance patriotism that mistakes merch for mastery. Then he gets practical: read one clause; annotate one statute; ask one official which limits they’ll defend; file one records request; share this episode with one person who disagrees. Small moves, repeated, rebuild civic muscle and restore the boundaries that keep power in check and debate possible.

If you’re tired of all‑caps politics and ready for law over noise, join us. Subscribe, leave a review, and share this with a friend who will challenge you back—then tell us which constitutional limit you’ll defend this week.

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