SE: All public power in Sweden proceeds from the people. Swedish democracy is founded on the free formation of opinion and on universal and equal suffrage. It is realised through a representative and parliamentary form of government and through local self-government. Public power is exercised under the law.
DE: (1) Human dignity shall be inviolable. To respect and protect it shall be the duty of all state authority. (2) The German people therefore acknowledge inviolable and inalienable human rights as the basis of every community, of peace and of justice in the world.
When no more insights can be squeezed from the Constitution, try the Universal Declaration of Human Rights or explore the Liberty Song and The Star Spangled Banner and sing them, or extend the conversation beyond the family.
Another good text to explore is the Foreign Assistance Act of 1948, better known as the Marshall Plan.
Another good one is the Schuman Declaration from 1950, which is the foundation of the EU.
The United States has an oath of office.
Older civil servants and employees who can eye retirement may be ready to stand up for principles, like attorney general Sally Q. Yates who was fired by Trump, one month before her retirement, for standing up to his travel ban. In Texas, radio host and commentator, Rick Casey, had a Trump-critical comment taken off the air.
Tillerson was not yet Secretary of State at the time but when he started at the State Department, he confirmed that the employees are entitled to their political opinions. Further, the American Foreign Service Association has a prize for constructive dissent.
The Hatch Act defines what federal employees in the US can and cannot do regarding politics, and especially under the Trump administration, insecurity about what is permitted has become widespread.
The case where seven police officers in Baltimore were arrested on racketeering charges in early March 2017, makes it obvious that different ways of positively expressing the core values of our democracies should be not just possible in the workplace but encouraged.
The Center Must Hold, as Tony Blair just wrote in an op-ed.
As, among other things, the State Department seems to be insufficiently staffed and according to some news articles more or less falling apart, posts in the administration remain vacant, and one cabinet nominee or member after the other turns out to have had contact with Russia, the Republicans decreasingly look interested in the United States as a whole.
Trump has gotten great praise for his Address to Congress February 28th, 2017, and many found that he finally managed to be presidential. That is true, he did. But it might as well be that he only did what he has been doing all the time: his persona was shaped by the people he was talking to. Put him in front of another audience, and he will change again.
Bill Gates and Warren Buffett not only seem to have reached self-transforming mental complexity, their conscience and sense of responsibility embrace the globe and future generations as do their actions. Nick Hanauer of Amazon.com and Civic Skunk Works seems to have the self-transforming complexity of mind and is more than capable of thinking outside existing economic structures and suggesting new ones, but which would be the most complex moral entity he feels a sense of duty towards?
Likewise, the Koch Brothers who are major political donors; Charles Koch has written a couple of op-eds suggesting self-transforming mental complexity, but which moral entity does he consider his most complex in-group and/or responsibility?