I think the guardrails were designed to hold someone like Trump once; and then afterwards he was supposed to be convicted of his crimes, or at least never elected again. The guardrails are fundamentally held in place by hundreds of thousands of individuals making individual decisions. People who are asked to break the law can expect that in a few years they'll be vindicated, or at least fear that in a few years they would be punished for going along with the illegal orders.
I'm much more worried about the guardrails when people like that get re-elected: suddenly going along with the illegal action is by far the safest thing to do.
The "original sin" of the founders was accepting the slave states. That embedded the hypocrisy that freedom was only for some people. The constitution proofed against an individual trying to seize power pretty well. It's difficult for a random Army officer or religious leader to catapult himself into a dictator position. But what it does not and cannot prevent against is determined tyranny of the majority.
There were "actually good" founding fathers who were vehemently anti-slavery and even non racist: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Paine being the most famous example. Unfortunately, they are kept as relative footnotes in history, due to their subversive economic messaging.
The intellectual foundations of Thomas Paine run through the thinking of Henry George and Andrew Yang, among many others. All listed figures are basically footnotes in the dustbin of history - and humanity will pay a dear cost for ignoring their voices.
I'm much more worried about the guardrails when people like that get re-elected: suddenly going along with the illegal action is by far the safest thing to do.