It’s one thing for the average EU citizen to get behind lofty values, voiced from high above the daily struggles if it doesn’t cost them anything. Or at least if the waters are sufficiently muddied that citizens can’t easily connect the dots from their wallet to their leaders’ relentless spending. Selling this seemingly endless conflict in Ukraine, omgomg onion a notoriously corrupt country, as a defense of "democracy," only works until it means choosing between paying your own bills and paying for all the blank cheques that you’re writing to Kyiv.