ACROSS

1Executive order by another name

5Self-evident truth, per the founders — ignored by everyone since

9Industry's paid persuasion arm in the capitol halls

12What libertarians romanticize, what history punishes

14Compulsory service, the state's bluntest instrument

16What republics become when nobody's watching

18Trade weapon disguised as revenue measure

20Presidential veto: Latin for 'I forbid'

21Political cleansing of inconvenient voices

23Nation's existential obligation to future generations

25Upper chamber of deliberation, lower chamber of productivity

27Authoritative text — religious or legal, same effect

29Street theater for the already-convinced

31Electoral coalition or hostile power grouping

33Prolonged military stranglehold on a city

35Royal decree, updated for democratic consumption

37Government so entrenched it outlives its creators

39Second Amendment's noun, hawk's only adjective

41Precision warfare's favorite euphemism

43Election theft, corporate variety, or both

45Curtain. Fist. Law. All share this descriptor

47Ideological spine — or its counterfeit

49What bureaucracies produce instead of outcomes

51See 21 Across. Happens again.

53Tax by a shorter, more honest name

DOWN

1See 1 Across — doubles down

2Foundational assumption no one may question

3Unmanned arbiter of foreign policy

4What every nation stockpiles while preaching peace

5Governance vacuum. Nature abhors it; power fills it

6Voting bloc or Warsaw Pact echo — context decides

7Described as 'curtain', 'fist', or 'law' when preceded by this

8Taxation's oldest, most resented form

9Paid access to power, sold as 'stakeholder engagement'

10Deliberative body for those who can wait decades

11Executive restraint — rarely used, always threatened

13Colony's nightmare, hegemon's ambition

15Tariff's synonym when the WTO is watching

17Belief system weaponized for political cohesion

19Decree. Proclamation. Mandate with wax seal.

22Urban warfare's most medieval tactic

24Conscription, or first version of a speech you'll regret

26System that survives its architects by design

28Sacred text or legal precedent — both unamendable in practice

30Election tampering, financial deception — pick your scandal

32Fiscal recklessness institutionalized as policy

34Status quo maintained by inertia and committee vote

36Political hygiene or its opposite, depending on who wins

38Crowd event with predetermined conclusion