The rule of law is the oxygen of democracy. It's sustaining, but it's also intangible. You can't see it with the naked eye. You can't grasp with your bare hands. You can't tie it down with strong ropes. It's an aspiration. It's an idea. A matter of faith. It can run out.

It's not words on paper. It's the breath of belief that animates the words. The 1789 French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen promised "safety and resistance against oppression." Yet, it was immediately followed by thousands of lawless murders. The Constitution of the Russian Federation grants more rights than the United States Constitution, yet it's so much hot air. The average Russian has no more rights than a dead dandelion.