The pragmatic/relativistic side of me could put up with dirty tricks and worse during the Cold War - which by the way would never have happened had the US stuck by its core principles. After all, the Cold War was far more than an economic war—its very rationale was couched in language appealing to our core moral principles: individual freedom vs collectivism.
But since at least the end of Reagan's era we have been backsliding on morality and behaving badly in order to prop up our economic interests - not our Judaeo-Christian moral foundations.
That is the fast downhill spiral we find ourselves spinning in.
I’m just glad not to be in the same kind of downhill spiral the left finds themselves in.