The acid test will come in the first half of 2025, when this agenda is likely to unfold. The American public will get a chance to see in detail for the first time just what they voted for. Congress must decide whether to go along — all while reacting to a series of assaults, each one more appalling than the last. We won’t know what hit us.

We will also learn whether Donald Trump’s disastrous, Kremlin-aligned cabinet picks can be rammed through as interim and recess appointments — or whether we have any kind of immune system left to fight off this infection.

I might suggest that we should use our institutions to stop this assault. However, I doubt this is possible, because I doubt that our institutions can comprehend and respond to the esoteric nature of this threat. The ethical thing to do now is to brace for impact, hope the public wakes up, and then try to defend our American values as we build whatever may come next.

And of course, Putin may not succeed in realizing his vision, but he and his allies can wreak incredible, irreversible damage in its pursuit.