“Americans seem to think their democracy is ideal, even sacred,..."

Yeah, fancy that.  Many Americans are appalled by the narcissistic kleptocrat Putin helped install and want him gone.  Why anyone should care that "many Russians like Trump" - they don't have to live with the crazed idiot, they don't know sh*t about it - is beyond me.  The article, like the times we're enduring, is weird beyond measure.