The Red Scare is back, but we don’t mean communists in Hollywood. This time, the threat is red-hat-wearing MAGA folks, and if that describes you, the communists in the deep state would like a word.

A press release from the House Judiciary Committee has the scoop:

New documents obtained by the Select Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government reveal that the federal government flagged terms like “MAGA” and “TRUMP” for financial institutions if Americans used those phrases when completing transactions. Individuals who shopped at stores like Cabela’s or Dick’s Sporting Goods, or purchased religious texts like a Bible, may also have had their transactions flagged. This kind of pervasive financial surveillance, carried out in coordination with and at the request of federal law enforcement, into Americans’ private transactions is alarming and raises serious concerns about the FBI’s respect for fundamental civil liberties.

Joe Biden has been warning about the threat to “democracy” posed by Donald Trump and his hordes who want to Make America Great Again. Biden was right about there being threats — to our Republic, mind you — but the source of those threats is his party and his brownshirts in the deep state.

Specifically, the Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCen) has been targeting anyone who “bought a religious text, like a BIBLE, or shopped at Bass Pro Shop,” says committee chairman Jim Jordan. He called it an “alarming” case of “pervasive financial surveillance” seemingly conducted “on the basis of protected political” speech or even “Americans exercising their Second Amendment rights.”

In other words, none of those transactions had anything to do with, you know, crime.

Jordan’s committee sent letters requesting “transcribed interviews from Peter Sullivan, Senior Private Sector Partner for Outreach in the Strategic Partner Engagement Section of the FBI, and Noah Bishoff, former Director of the Office of Stakeholder Integration and Engagement in the Strategic Operations Division of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN).”

Jim Jordan’s a great guy and a tenacious former wrestler, but sternly worded letters and dour lectures for the cameras in a congressional hearing aren’t going to fix this problem.

Indeed, it’s difficult to overstate the extent to which Trump Derangement Syndrome guides every decision and policy on the Left, all while they yammer about “unity.”

Democrats have calculated that indicting Trump four times on 91 counts — only a handful of which are actually remotely serious — will ensure Trump’s base rallies around him and pushes him to the GOP nomination. The persecution of January 6 rioters and tourists alike has fueled the sense of two-tiered justice among Trump’s supporters, as did the military’s vain search for the “white supremacists” in its ranks. All that did was reduce the number of white recruits.

Then there’s the rampant suppression and censorship of free speech that is applied almost exclusively to those of us on the Right.

This whole MAGA transaction charade is designed in the same way. It’s just part of a pervasive campaign to both oppress and motivate Trump’s base, with the goal of beating that base and that candidate (again) in November.

Democrats may greatly regret their strategy if enough Americans realize how far this has gone and decide they’re mad as hell and not going to take it anymore.