“The mob is easily deceived, for it judges by appearances.”

Aristotle’s words speak to a dangerous flaw in human nature: how easily fear can be stoked, trust compromised, and institutions dismantled from within.

In 1947, amid growing fears of communist influence, President Harry Truman issued an executive order authorizing a “loyalty investigation of every person entering civilian employment” in the federal government. The order established the Federal Employee Loyalty Program, designed to root out individuals suspected of communist ties or sympathies. But it was driven not by evidence, but by fear: fear that communists had infiltrated the government, fear that loyalty could only be measured through paperwork and interrogations, fear that sacrificing civil liberties was a necessary cost for national security.

Five million federal workers were subjected to loyalty questionnaires, resulting in 25,000 investigations, 2,700 firings, and 12,000 resignations. Yet, despite the sweeping nature of the program, not a single spy was uncovered. What was exposed was the vulnerability of democratic principles when fear dictates policy.

In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy inflated Truman’s executive action and turned “Red Scare” anxieties into a political weapon. Today, President Donald Trump and his allies push the notion of a “Deep State” working from the shadows of government to subvert democracy. Decades apart, both movements share a common strategy: invent an enemy, fabricate a crisis, and corrode public trust for political gain.

McCarthy alleged that Communists had infiltrated the government, launching a crusade built on suspicion and paranoia. His hearings blacklisted citizens, destroyed careers, and fueled a climate of fear that forced Americans to prove their loyalty to a nation they already loved. When pressed for evidence, he offered none. When challenged, he attacked critics as traitors or sympathizers. Ultimately, his hysteria collapsed under its own weight of lies when the Army-McCarthy hearings exposed his recklessness, leading to his censure by the Senate in 1954.

The Deep State narrative is nothing new—it’s straight from McCarthy’s playbook. Portray the government as infested with unseen enemies (“vermin”), sow distrust in its institutions, and weaponize fear. President Donald Trump and his allies have turned that strategy against the FBI, DOJ, and intelligence community, not as defenders of democracy, but as conspirators against him.

At the heart of this attack is loyalty—not to the country, the Constitution, or the rule of law, but to one man. In a democracy, institutions function on principles of integrity and accountability. But when loyalty becomes personal allegiance over duty, it’s not service, it’s submission.

Like McCarthyism, this narrative thrives on insinuation rather than evidence. Investigations into so-called Deep State conspiracies have produced nothing substantial, yet the myth persists. Why? Because fear is easier to sell than facts, and division is a powerful political tool.

McCarthy’s Red Scare and today’s Deep State paranoia weaken one of democracy’s most essential pillars. . . trust. Without trust, conspiracy replaces truth, and power is seized not through service, but through deception.

Ethics demands that we judge actions not just by their intentions, but by their consequences. Truman’s order may have been designed to protect the nation, but in practice, it weakened trust, cast suspicion on the innocent, and set a dangerous precedent: that loyalty could be dictated by bureaucracy rather than demonstrated through character and service.

Ultimately, McCarthy’s lies caught up to him. The question is: Will history repeat itself, or will we finally learn the lesson?