The only sure way to counteract Russian propaganda is to raise awareness of it. As long as Americans are ignorant, they’re vulnerable. Elevate their knowledge of it, however, and the propagandists have a harder time getting their lies to stick.

So I was glad to read Nancy LaTourneau’s piece about Tulsi Gabbard. (If you don’t read Nancy, stop reading me and go read her right now!) For the Washington Monthly, she wrote last week that Gabbard doesn’t have to be a literal Russian asset for Hillary Clinton to have been correct in saying the Kremlin would find Gabbard useful.

Nancy: “Having been on the front line of Putin’s last attempt to interfere in a presidential election, Clinton is very aware of the tactics that were used against her. It wasn’t simply that Moscow supported Donald Trump. In his indictment against those who participated in Russia’s social media campaign, Robert Mueller documented that they were also involved in supporting candidates during the Democratic primary.”

Those candidates were Bernie Sanders and Jill Stein.

Gabbard is in line with Vladimir Putin’s bid to influence US foreign policy “on three areas,” Nancy writes: “(1) Ukraine, (2) Syria, and (3) overturning the Magnitsky Act. On all three, Gabbard has either provided direct support or failed to oppose his aims.”

Perhaps more significantly, Gabbard, like Sanders and Stein before her, has decided her fate depends on maligning “not only Hillary Clinton, but the entire Democratic Party as well—specifically by claiming that the 2020 election has already been rigged.”

It’s a fact Gabbard is not a third-party candidate. But don’t be surprised if she is later. And if she is, you’ll know what her purpose is. It isn’t to win. It’s to destroy.

—John Stoehr

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More

• Today’s Editorial Board: No, ‘Lock Him Up!’ Isn’t Wrong.

• Katrina Forrester says we need a liberalism for our era, not John Rawls’.

• Emily Bazelon explains William Barr’s thirst for American monarchy.

• There was another mass shooting in Texas Sunday.

• Anne Kim says working-class white women oppose Trump’s impeachment.

• Elizabeth Drew wonders how long Senate Republicans will tolerate Trump.

Plus

The Editorial Board now has a tip jar. Well, sort of. You can subscribe the usual way—$6 a month or $60 a year—or you can subscribe for any amount you’d like. You can also give the Editorial Board as a gift. Something to think about with holidays coming up!