evidence: Around the same time, a recent video emerged on Facebook of Secretary of Defense James Mattis telling a small group of American troops, "You’re a great example of our country right now." He went on, "Our country, right now, it’s got problems that we don’t have in the military. You just hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it." [...] "You just hold the line," Mattis told the troops—hang on to your toughness and your values—until things back home straighten out. Mattis must be telling himself to "hold the line" every day. The question is how far that line extends and how far he would go to hold it. [...] It’s not entirely Mattis’ fault that he has placed himself and the troops in this position. My guess is he’d rather not be anywhere near any awkward constitutional lines. By any measure, it would be good if we had an attorney general or secretary of state with the authority, integrity, and independence to play this sort of protective role. But we don’t. Mattis is what’s left as a potential bulwark to catastrophe, and this is, at once, assuring and disturbing.