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Opinion
Cass R. Sunstein

Russia Is Using Marxist Strategies, and So Is Trump

Moscow's meddling in the U.S. election was aimed at stoking social tensions. Sound familiar?
Full of contradictions.

Full of contradictions.

Photographer: Steve Eaton/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

Karl Marx and his followers argued that revolutionaries should disrupt capitalist societies by "heightening the contradictions." Russia used a version of that Marxist idea in its efforts to disrupt the 2016 presidential campaign. It should come as no surprise that the most powerful nation from the former Soviet Union, whose leaders were schooled in the Marxist tradition, is borrowing directly from that tradition in its efforts today.

What is more surprising, and far more important for American politics, is that President Donald Trump is drawn to a similar strategy.