The respect for those constitutions has eroded significantly since the beginning of the century, but they still exist and we must still insist on them. Don't give up the achievements of the past that easily.
The point is that a constitution is not an achievement, the "unlocking" of which would transform a society in any lasting way. It might be more accurate to say that a constitution or similar document is an aspiration, but since few such have been fulfilled it's foolish to be surprised when we fall short. The fault is not in our constitutions, but in ourselves, that we are underlings. We knew when we built this monstrous war and imprisonment machine that it would be turned against us, yet we built it anyway.
By propagating it as if it were true, you are in fact playing into the hands of those who want society to bow to a different notion of legality - one where the rule of law has been eliminated. That is, by writing what you write, you are needlessly conceding ground to the bad guys.
I know it's tempting to play (or be?) the jaded cynic. But it seems to me that if we want to keep politicians and government officials accountable to the laws, then a necessary (though of course not sufficient) condition for that is that we insist on calling their actions illegal when they are illegal.
