The left has always been for the rule of law, only when he helped to bring them into power.
They have always seen the rule of law as a tool to be used against those who value limited government.
When I think of that quote from Reagan, I imagine that not one in a hundred people thought it was anything but highfalutin rhetoric. A year-and-a-half ago we came within a hair’s breadth of losing that freedom and quite likely permanently.