People were extremely afraid of communism.  But some people took it too far.  For example, Joseph R. McCarthy.  He went on a rampage of accusing people being communists.  McCarthy never had any real facts that any of these people were communists.

The word “McCarthyism” is still used today.  It has a definition and everything. The definition comes from what McCarthy was like.  It is used for character assasination, guilt by association, and abuse of power in the name of anticommunism.  I think that presidents today won’t abuse their power to this extent because of  what happened with McCarthy.  I’m pretty sure this is not how they want to be remembered.