From a period of US history in the years that followed WWII, one that still resonates now. Anti-communist hysteria was at the root of it; it was a ploy of sorts for Republicans to consolidate and enhance their postwar electoral gains. Yes, the Soviet Union had become a real foe, but The Scare went OTT - it was an attempt to quash all domestic dissent, and all political views to the left of Joseph McCarthy, by painting all infidels as "communist". Nowadays, the Magic Scare Word is "liberal", and anything to the left of Alan Greenspan is dismissed as "socialist".