GOP reboots the Red Scare as young Democrats embrace socialism

Axios Axios —

70 years after the Red Scare and 35 years after the fall of the Soviet Union, https://www.axios.com/politics-policy/donald-trump" target="_blank">President Trump and Republicans are trying to re-introduce a national fear of "godless communists" ahead of the critical midterms.

Why it matters: A wave of https://www.axios.com/2026/06/24/mamdani-lander-valdez-chevalier-espaillat-goldman" target="_blank">resounding victories by Democratic Socialists has the GOP trotting out a message that last worked when most of those candidates weren't even born.

The big picture: Former Trump aide Steve Bannon has https://www.cnn.com/2017/03/06/politics/kfile-bannon-mccarthy" target="_blank">argued for years that former Wisconsin Sen. Joe McCarthy was right about communism's widespread infiltration into the U.S. government.

What they're saying: "It's a common electoral strategy for conservatives to attack liberals, progressives, democratic socialists as communists, and imply therefore that they are much more extreme than they actually are," Kathryn Olmsted, a U.C. Davis distinguished professor of history, tells Axios.

  • But, she adds, "we're definitely reaching a new fever pitch."

The other side: "The Democrats' embrace of socialism and communism is an existential threat to our country.

President Trump will keep calling out their radicalism and drawing a sharp contrast with his commonsense, America First agenda," White House spokesperson Olivia Wales said in a statement.

The intrigue: https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240517-roy-cohn-the-mysterious-us-lawyer-who-helped-donald-trump-rise-to-power" target="_blank">Trump mentor Roy Cohn was McCarthy's chief counsel during his infamous anticommunist campaign.

  • "Trump really is a Cold War person ... that's that's when he came of age, it's how he formed his political ideas," says Beverly Gage, a Pulitzer-prize-winning historian.
  • She adds, "But I guess the question is, 30 some years out from the end of the Cold War, is the United States actually still susceptible to that kind of political language?"

Reality check: Democratic socialism is not communism.

New York's https://www.axios.com/2025/06/25/zohran-mamdani-campaign-success-nyc-mayor-primary" target="_self">Zohran Mamdani and Washington, D.C., mayoral candidate https://www.axios.com/local/washington-dc/2025/11/20/janeese-lewis-george-bowser-dc-mayor-election-zohran-mamdani" target="_self">Janeese Lewis George both call for expanded government programs, Axios' Josephine Walker writes.

Between the lines: Red-baiting "has much less resonance for a younger generation, which did not grow up living under the shadow of the Soviet Union," says Ethan Porter, co-director of GW's https://iddp.gwu.edu/" target="_blank">Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics.

  • "For many young voters, communism is just not an effective boogeyman."

Zoom out: Nevertheless, Republicans are https://x.com/NewYorkGOP/status/2069613563249893451" target="_blank">echoing Trump's midterm message.

By the numbers: U.S. college students have a https://www.axios.com/2025/11/01/socialism-capitalism-college-voters" target="_blank">sunnier view of socialism than capitalism, according to an October Axios-Generation Lab https://www.generationlab.org/axios-gl-oct-29" target="_blank">poll.

What we're watching: Whether Trump's anticommunist alarm carries modern political weight.

Go deeper: https://www.axios.com/2026/06/25/mamdani-democrats-new-york-left-socialists-house" target="_blank">House Democrats brace for a "Freedom Caucus of the left"

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