Reply #42: Yes, this passage is the nub of it:

[JackRiddler]

Ellsberg:

There have been violations of these principles by many presidents before.

.....

I think that none of those presidents were in fact what I would call quite precisely the current administration: domestic enemies of the Constitution.

------------

Yes, for all the criminality and imperialism and rapaciousness and outright genocide committed by a number prior administrations, none were as much in their hearts feeling as enemies of the Constitution. They all had some reserve of belief in that document and the republican system.

I beg to differ a bit on the next part: This is the same administration as was in power in 1981-92, under Reagan / Bush I, full of enemies of the Constitution already then. The same guys, in fact. But it's evolved now to the next logical, predictable, far more dangerous manifestation. And there have been prior coups, for those willing to see them: in establishing the postwar order, in 1963, in 1980. But Bush II is the logical culmination.

It's in the open now, barely bothering with disguise, men proudly declaring themselves enemies of the Constitution.