Putin thinks he can win a new Cold War. He may be right.

The truth is that we’re not ready for this right now.

Our once-sturdy consensus around liberal democracy — a basic commitment to free speech, civil debate, laws and values over demagogues, division and disinformation — is crumbling with alarming speed.

The prosperity that once raised the standard of living for the middle class is waning now, as faithless capital flees to foreign shores and conservatives look to slash every tax they can find, widening the gulf between the wealthy and everyone else.

A Republican Party that once led the fight against godless communism (that’s how all those evangelical Christians got into politics, by the way) now bows to a leader who calls Putin a “genius.” Rather than opposing Russian aggression, Ronald Reagan’s political descendants roll back voting rights and support armed insurrectionists in the U.S. Capitol.