Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a joke (or a kind of joke which is funny because it's true). And it is arguably it's not that much of a joke in the modern US e

Unfortunately, it wasn't much of a joke (or a kind of joke which is funny because it's true). And it is arguably it's not that much of a joke in the modern US either, with the whole "three felonies a day" thing and various "espionage" and "foreign influence" laws that are being dug up from two centuries ago and dusted off and deployed for political purposes. The idea that bad laws would also apply to people in power and thus they'd see they are bad and change them is hopelessly naive.