Navy Patriot, you may be right...Reagan instinctually and internally knew why the Cold War would turn out in our favor but:
Even he did not make the narrative clear enough for America and the world. Hence why Soviet/Marxist values already taking hold of the West became entrenched.
And also why (even though I think these people are overly demonized) - the American reformers who sought to rebuild post-Soviet Russia with a secular Harvard-guided market-based economic model FAILED miserably.
They had zero clue on the massive, depths-defying grip the Soviet vision had on people’s souls!
I spoke to a Russian man from Odessa who came to the U.S. in the late 70s: said it took him TEN whole years to adjust to life here, even after learning English. He had to detox from all the lies, all the habits of cheating, deceit, and bribery he engaged in for survival of life under oppression - all the perceptions of his Soviet imagination ingrained in him since birth. It was collective brainwashing on an unprecedented level in human history!
(Now you can see why the post-Soviet space has struggled so much to find its footing!) And why North Korea is such a mess.
Communism is an atheist vision of the world fundamentally at odds with the reality of God and His jurisdiction over the universe. It is literally attempting on a heaven on earth without Him - and ends up creating hell instead. This is why it failed and fails and fails time and time again.
And too many Americans don’t realize how our precious free institutions are inseparable from the reality of God, from whom all fundamental laws of nature and rights of man (as His image bearer) find their origin.
“Endowed by our Creator...”
I believe, Trump — his speechwriter Stephen Miller — they have a clearer narrative about why the world looks like the way it does today and how crucial it is that America stand firm and own our place in the narrative as beacon of freedom.
Loved the “Western civilization must survive” speech Trump gave in Warsaw, Poland last spring especially.
There are no mature or senior native Russian citizens alive who did not experience this relentless absolute totalitarian Marxism.
Their reaction is entirely human, to learn how to survive and adapt what you cannot change.
That Russians did so actually speaks more to their strength than their flaws.
The Western economic effort to "rescue" Russians from Communism after the Fall of the Soviet Union was not genuine or earnest.
In fact, it was a Western Elitist attempt to secure a favorable position in ownership and control of Russian and Eastern European assets and natural resources using purchased favorable treatment from Yeltsin.
These are the same entities that attack Russia now, and demonize Russians and Russian leaders that stand up to Western exploitation as a bunch Godless Commies.
Individual Russians, and the Nation, have and will relearn how to negotiate a non Marxist, partially free market competitive system at different rates, with seniors probably the slowest (Pensioned and less involved with the workforce).
But they will learn how to be competitive with the rest of the world. Remember, the Russians now have had about Seventeen years to catch up to what America has had about 200 years to experiment with.
Russia has been out of Politically Correct Marxism since about 1995, while America and Western Europe have installed Politically Correct Marxism to the point of Tyranny staring in about 1955.
The last thing Russians need is "Help" from the West, because it is not Help, it is Socialist Tyranny and Serfdom.
Russians not only have to learn to negotiate a more Free Market, they have to learn tho watch out for themselves as individuals and Russian Nationals, and learn self sufficiency, too, while detecting and disregarding the Fake News Western Media, including some of their own.
Can they? They certainly have the smarts and the chops.
Will they? God knows.