Okay but we're literally dealing with a person (and a group of people backing him) who have literally been positioning themselves to pull off a coup by legal mechanisms. They literally have the Supreme Court rubber stamping Trump's immunity even though he stole classified documents, and then refused to return them, unlike every previous President who understood things like national security. Judge Cannon even dropped the case the day he became the Republican nominee, specifically citing Thomas' concurrence in which he talked about an unrelated issue that has been repeatedly ruled on already, the issue of Special Counsel funding. They have corrupted the court system already. They also espouse a deeply hateful and hurtful ideology that isn't above killing innocent people to achieve their ends. Trump has also made it fully clear that he plans to contest the election if he loses. They also plan on trying to use legal trickery like the fake electors just like last time, in other words, cheating. (EDIT: Honestly it's the scariest part of JD Vance as VP. His law degree and how fucking vicious he is. He's going to kick the ratfuckery into high gear) Trump has spoken constantly about "military tribunals" for his enemies. His former advisers readily admit they had to talk him down from killing people all the time during his previous administration.

They are literally dismantling the legal mechanisms that allow us to hold them accountable via the social contract.

Do you understand how what you're suggesting doesn't work in those circumstances?

How are we able to treat them equally and equitably when in the process of trying to do that, we allow them to dismantle the very systems that give us the power to do so? The only result after that is for us to be under their boot, and that point, they don't care about things like justice and will stomp that boot on our face... forever. They've made it clear they only care about power, going back a long time.

We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do. -Karl Rove