Ukrainians can remind the West what freedom tastes like

For more than four years, Ukrainians have made the same plea to their Western backers: Our fight against Russia is a defense of your freedoms, too. And although that resonated with many early on in the war, across much of Europe and the U.S., it is increasingly being met with a shrug.

To be sure, support for Ukraine has not collapsed. But the conviction behind it has thinned. Voters have begun to ask whether this fight matters to them, whether the costs are worth it and whether “freedom” isn’t just a slogan. 

Part of this is understandable. The war has dragged on, and other global conflicts have drawn attention elsewhere. However, those explanations miss something more uncomfortable. The reason “freedom” fails to move some could be that many no longer feel particularly free themselves.

Quite simply, if Americans, Germans and citizens in other Western democracies do not value the idea of freedom because they feel they themselves do not possess it, they will not rush to defend it. 

The data is striking. In Germany, the share of citizens who feel “free” to express their political opinions has fallen from 83 percent in 1971 to just 45 percent today, according to the Allensbach Institute. At the extremes, just 11 percent of Alternative for Germany party voters said the same — a stunningly low number, given the party’s popularity. 

Critically, that erosion is not confined to Germany, it is plaguing the entire West, including the U.S. According to Gallup, over the last 20 years, G7 countries have shown the biggest declines in citizens who are “satisfied” with the freedoms they have. This includes the U.S. (minus-16 points), France (minus-15), the........

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