McCarthyism.

The Red Scare, also known as the Era of McCarthyism, spanned from 1950 to 1954, and was a movement of anticommunism that brought the United States through four years of domestic turmoil where individuals and organizations were tried incessantly for disloyalty to America through any and all support for communism. Initiated by lawyer and Republican Senator, Joseph McCarthy, McCarthyism deeply disturbed the political, social, economical, and artistic normality of United States in the 1950s', however this essay …

…from McCarthyism was ironically contrasted by the movement's goal of preserving democracy and freedom. Whether it was fear of the 'eastern establishment', a real need for reform or frustrated partisan ambitions that prompted the idea to catch fire, the fact that American politicians and political parties were defined by their ties to communism and were fired, elected, or in Rosenbergs' case, executed accordingly clearly proves how McCarthyism was an intensely divisive and deeply influential phenomenon.