[footfootfoot]

Originally Posted by Undertoad

In all history, folks like you and me have invented political boogiemen so that we could live in a state of fear, which is comfortable to us as anxiety people.

Yes, we like it. We choose it. Do not deny.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Power_of_Nightmares

At the same time in the United States, a group of disillusioned liberals, including Irving Kristol and Paul Wolfowitz, look to the political thinking of Leo Strauss after the perceived failure of President Johnson's "Great Society". They conclude that an emphasis on individual liberty was the undoing of Johnson's plans. They envisioned restructuring America by uniting the American people against a common evil, and set about creating a mythical enemy. These factions, the neoconservatives, came to power during the 1980s under the Reagan administration, with their allies Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. They alleged that the Soviet Union was not following the terms of a disarmament treaty between the two countries, and together with the outcomes of "Team B", they built a case using dubious evidence and methods to prove it to Ronald Reagan.