It wasn’t that long ago the idea of Russia being our “number one” geopolitical foe was laughable. Literally.

In a 2012 presidential debate, GOP candidate Mitt Romney was roundly derided for saying Russia presented the “greatest geopolitical threat” to the country. To almost everyone watching the televised match, it appeared Romney had committed a major faux pas and had served up a big old softball for President Obama to hit out of the park.

And Obama did.

Reminding Romney of the threat presented to our country by Al Qaeda, Obama quipped, “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back because you know, the Cold War has been over for 20 years.”

The Democratic Party tweeted from their official account, “Romney, who calls Russia our ‘No. 1 geopolitical foe,’ doesn’t seem to realize it’s the 21st century. #RomneyNotReady.”

Boy how Obama and the Democrats are singing a different tune today!

With zero doubt from our intelligence agencies that Putin and his band of hackers meddled in our 2016 presidential election, perhaps enough to have handed the presidency to Donald Trump, Romney’s assessment was beyond spot-on.

A foreign adversary, Russia, launched a stealth attack against the heart of our democracy – its electoral integrity – by helping the candidate of their choice, Donald Trump, through sophisticated cyber warfare.

But as bad as this is, it doesn’t appear the party that benefited from such interference is all that concerned about it. The GOP has not only become the party of Trump, but the party of Putin.

Things have gotten so bad, so out of whack, that Republicans have been either silent or in agreement with Trump’s defense of obvious collusion between his son Don Jr. and Russian nationals: “Most politicians would have gone to a meeting like the one Don Jr. attended in order to get info on an opponent. That’s politics!”

Ronald Reagan must be rolling over in his grave wondering how his beloved GOP became sympathizers of what he often dubbed the “Evil Empire.”

What Romney understood at the time, and even a smart politician such as Obama did not, is that the Cold War never really ended … not with Russia being ruled by the former KGB spymaster, Vladimir Putin.

Photo | newsbusters.org