When the news broke that the CIA thinks Russia interfered in the presidential election by allegedly hacking both the RNC and DNC but only leaking the DNC documents, Twitter exploded into full-on hysteria. And there was only one direction to point the finger for blame.

Not at the current sitting president — who is, after all, charged with keeping American democracy safe. No: Republicans.

Mother Jones’ David Corn tweeted: “The choice for Republicans is clear: defend American democracy or embrace Putin-aligned opportunism.” The Washington Post’s EJ Dionne wondered how many conservatives would join independent Evan McMullin “to call out this attack on our democracy.” Ian Millhiser, justice editor at ThinkProgress, tweeted: “Dear Republicans: Think of all that Ronald Reagan did to diminish Russia’s influence. If he were alive, you would disgust him.”

Some on the right welcomed Democrats’ newfound appreciation for the Russian threat. “Orientation for new Russia hawks begins at noon on the quad. Be sure to wear your Better Dead Than Red spirit shirt for the group photo,” tweeted the Washington Free Beacon’s Blake Seitz.

For the last eight years, Republicans noted again and again the rise in Russian influence worldwide only to be pooh-poohed for living in the past. Millhiser’s opinion of Reagan must have increased significantly since he wrote a gleeful piece in July about how Hillary Clinton “stuck a knife” in Reaganism. And during the vice presidential debate in October, he tweeted his agreement with journalist Irin Carmon, who called the questions “from another era.” Millhiser wrote: “Yup. Deficits. Russia. It’s like Quijano went into stasis in 1988 and just woke up to moderate this debate.”

Ah yes, like President Obama told Mitt Romney to media applause in 2012: “The 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back.”

When Obama was caught on an open mic in 2012 telling then-Russian President Dmitry Medvedev he would have more “flexibility” to act on missile defense after his re-election, there was no outrage from Democrats.

In fact, Corn blamed — wait for it — Republicans for Obama being unable to tell the public his brilliant ideas for ridding the world of nuclear weapons. When it was a politician Corn liked, the choice whether to “defend American democracy or embrace Putin-aligned opportunism” was an easy one — and it wasn’t the defense of American democracy that won.

During the 2004 presidential election, when Dan Rather went on national TV with fake documents to accuse the sitting president of going AWOL during his military service, EJ Dionne didn’t think it was an “attack on our democracy.”

He called the documents “wacky” and blamed — yes, again — Republicans for using it to question the independence of the media. “By using bad documents, Dan Rather helped Bush, not John Kerry, because Rather gave Bush’s skilled lieutenants the chance to use the CBS mistake to close off an entire line of inquiry about the president.”

So now liberals have decided that it’s suddenly very important to combat this threat. We’ve watched from the sidelines as Russia annexed Crimea and then took a starring role in putting down any opposition to Bashar al-Assad in Syria. Last March the Guardian reported that Russian airstrikes had killed 2,000 civilians. How many more have died in the nine months since then is anyone’s guess. Where’s the outrage?

Two weeks ago, Libyan Gen. Khalifa Haftar met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to seek military support for the civil war that continues to roil Libya. When the anonymous Obama adviser infamously boasted about how America would “lead from behind,” he or she was talking about Libya. Apparently we’re leading from behind the Russians.

Let’s take all foreign interference in our elections seriously and stop pretending that a weak America is somehow better for the world. Assuming the CIA position turns out to be true, there’s a reason Russia felt it could involve itself in our elections: We are no longer seen as a force to be reckoned with.

It’s old-fashioned and lame to remember the Cold War at all, much less that it was a war for influence. Russia is no longer Communist, but it’s no less critical for America to step up and lead on the world stage.

Republicans should continue shouting “Don’t trust Russia!” from the rooftops and fighting Russian influence.

But maybe now Democrats will know to do the same.