D Hmm. If only there had been a previous conflict that pitted Soviet/Russian war doctrine, training and front line combat equipment against the United State's lineup.

No. Before the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the reviews of the military were mixed. We had a few glimpses in Syria and the Donbass but it wasn't until around 2017 that some of the reviews of the Russian military were critical and judged the revamping started in 2008 as having no effect. I doubt you would've written such a poor assessment in say, 2016.

The real strawman (along with a bunch of other fallacies) is that there's actually somebody in the country who ISN'T a fan of seeing Russians stacked up alongside the road as fast as the Ukrainians can body them up. That's a democrat party trope.

You don't know what a strawman is, do you? I've got an easy way to remember it if you're interested.

We are helping defend a democracy attacked by an authoritarian state and assisting our allies in doing so. This democracy was attacked because the authoritarian leader wants to restore the old Russian Empire (you said this), and project power in the Black Sea area with his navy, etc. There is no indication it will stop with Ukraine, so, we are seeing countries who didn't join NATO, that have proximity to Russia, request to join NATO due to the perceived threat.

Your side is opposing new funding which assists the authoritarian that attacked the democratic state. This is could be perceived as an anti-democratic move. The insurrection ( elements of) on Jan 6 was an anti democratic move. Taken together they support the contention that you have a large anti-democratic faction within your party.

We live in a representative democracy called a republic that is doing very well right now. But - we have a treasonous person running for President who doesn't give a flying fuck about the country. He's running for office because he's afraid of all the potential convictions because he's guilty as hell.

We need to defend democracy when we can do it, and while we can do it.