America's founders rightfully recognized the potential for tyranny and corruption within the government and designed the government in such a manner as to check and balance these potentials. What they failed to recognize is that the government is not the only entity that is capable of tyranny and corruption, and that there are any number of corrupt and tyrannical entities that are not the government.
In America, the government is much more benign than it is in most of the world. The bulk of corruption and tyranny in America comes from private entities. It comes from communities; it comes from religions; it comes from families; it comes from corrupt networks in law and medicine. The government is checked in its potentials for tyranny and corruption. These other entities are not.
While the attention of freedom-fighters is concentrated on scrutinizing the government, real corruption and real tyranny grows up in their home towns. Life becomes regimented and controlled viciously, while real crimes are hidden and prevented from being redressed. Girls are told – and quickly taught – to never tell in case their fathers rape them. People get killed in hospitals, and doctors enlist corrupt lawyers and coroners to bury the case. Religious denominations oppress and control people to a far greater extent than does the American government. Community organizations such as the mafia and the KKK command the loyalty of many and use it to get away with murder.
Compared to all these groups, American government is quite mild. It is certainly more mild than most governments around the world. However it is not the source of the worst abuses in America. The worst abuses in America are private, and these can be very difficult to correct.
How can they be corrected? The first step of course is exposing them. The second step is realizing that the government is not the only source of evil in the world, and that there are many private sources of evil.
When this is done, it will become possible to actually prevent tyranny and corruption. And that will make it possible for people to have actual liberty.