During the Salem witch trials, almost everyone was accused of doing witchcraft. Back then, witchcraft was an offence warranting death, and the only way one person might escape death when accused of witchcraft, was to pin the blame on someone else. Consider this conversation:

“HALE: Nonsense! Mister, I have myself examined Tituba, Sarah Good, and numerous others that have confessed to dealing with the Devil. They have confessed it.

PROCTOR: And why not, if they must hang for denyin’ it? There are them that will swear to anything before they’ll hang; have you never thought of that?”

Proctor suggests that people will say anything to maintain their position or escape punishment.

Arthur Miller demonstrated this in his play The Crucible, which he wrote in the early 1950s as an allegory of the politics of that day. In Miller’s play, almost the entire town of Salem was accused of doing witchcraft. In the end, either people were executed, jailed, or otherwise left the community, and the town of Salem fell apart. Nobody won.

Meanwhile, in the 1950s, communism was, and still largely is, despised in the USA. Politicians and public figures everywhere were accused of being a communist, which could end their careers. The only way they could hope to remove this label, was to accuse others of being communist. This vicious cycle continued until the House Committee of Un-American Activities crumbled. Arthur Miller was caught up in all of it, and if he complained to loudly he feared he’d become a victim, which is why he wrote The Crucible in the first place.

Not long ago, there was a rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which many far right groups came to protest the removal of a Robert E. Lee statue. The far right were met with counter-protests, and violence quickly erupted, leaving over 40 people injured and 3 people dead. President Donald Trump said, “We all must be united and condemn all that hate stands for. There is no place for this kind of violence in America. Let's come together as one! We condemn in the strongest possible terms this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, on many sides." (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unite_the_Right_rally)

Interestingly enough, while Trump strongly denounced what happened in Charlottesville, he blamed everyone for it, not just those who were actually responsible.

In the end, this led to more division and fear, and Donald Trump hasn’t said much else in fear of losing power.

In fact, in all three examples, people were fighting for power. During the Salem witch trials, people were afraid of losing political power to others in the community. Most people were christians, and they would denounce anyone who was thought to be against them. Those in power feared that people would take it from them, so they accused them of witchcraft. Thus, people believed if they just killed everyone who was even slightly accused of witchcraft, then all their problems would be solved. However, this only destroyed the town of Salem.

Similarly, in the 1950s, people in power were afraid of losing that power, so they called their opposers communists. This caused what was called “The Red Scare”, and people used that as an excuse to keep their power. That led to the House Committee of Un-American Activities crumbling and many innocent people losing their careers.

These days, Donald Trump refuses to pin the blame on those who were truly responsible, in fear of losing his power. He didn’t do this because those who organized the rally likely voted for him.

So, really, The Crucible was written to detail what people in politics and elsewhere have always done; try to stay in power. People and parties will do anything to stay in power, even if that means executing people, ending their careers, and/or creating more division and fear.