Yeah, I think part of what makes it so galling is that with what is effectively control of all three branches of government, they could have went by the book and gotten away with much of it but they couldn't be bother to do even that.

Civics as in "this is how government works" or civics as in "we're all inhabiting the same piece of land, how do we do that without killing one another"? The former was still taught when I was in school (millennial here) but it's hard to tell that it did much good. I think something akin to the latter was taught in the early days of this country, or at least there was a much better understanding of that at the time that is noticeably absent these days.

Ever listen to Utah Phillips? There's a quote by him, "Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free...”

People never cease to amaze me...

Don't be sorry, glad you got something out of it :)