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Notes -
The entire point of having a bill of rights is to give rhetorical ammunition to the pro-rights side- sure, "rule of law" is always going to be "rule by law" to some degree, but even an explicitly worthless bill of rights (like, say, Canada's) still codifies how the public should ideally restrain its worst impulses and, much like guns, provides a common co-ordination point around which political action might crystallize.
Sure, this depends on a bunch of things- mainly that the past was freer than the present (though that's why bills of rights from countries that post-date the US' founding are all much weaker than the US's BOR in the first place!)- but giving [classical] liberals the ability to convict traditionalists and progressives of institutional and intentional unfairness is still a big deal especially when those factions start losing political ground, and gives those who might be in favor of returning to that stated ideal the same cover of "I just want to be treated fairly" that the corrupt enjoy when public opinion favors them.
I think the constitution is the wrong place to put rhetorical ammunition. If it were statutory law (like the Racial Discrimination Act which our government just suspends when it gets in the way), not so bad. There's value to making the government explicitly say "yes we are in fact abridging this right". But the current system rewards people for pretending that actually the second amendment wasn't meant for weapons of war or other similarly asinine things.
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