They act arbitrarily. Law becomes politicized. It mutates into something the lawmakers insist that only the citizen obeys. I remember how Congress, for several years, said that citizens must follow the civil rights laws, but it exempted itself from these same laws in its hiring practices. Members of Congress, along with imperial presidents, held themselves above the law.
Law becomes something that can be distorted for political purposes.
It is a roadblock to democratic government, he complained. They are merely annoyances that can be pushed aside once public opinion and the election returns are on their side. They are playing to the mob. This ends justifies any means philosophy, this any bending of the rules is acceptable provided there is popular support for the measure is the philosophy that guides so much of our lawmaking today. The government is illegitimate.