Democrats’ Tactic of Accusing Critics of Kremlin Allegiance Has Long, Ugly History in U.S.

A frequentweapon for Democrats in the 2016 election is to publicly malign thosethey regard ascritics andadversaries as Russia sympathizers, Putin stooges, or outright agents of the Kremlin. To put it mildly, this is not a new tactic in U.S. political discourse, and it’s worth placing it in historical context. That’s particularly true given how many people have now been targeted with this attack.

Strongly insinuating thatthe GOP nominee, Donald Trump, has nefarious, possiblytreasonous allegian...