https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Fear
“A person is smart. People are dumb, panicky dangerous animals and you know it.”
Basically, if you can keep the people in fear, you can keep yourself (or in this case, the Feds), in control. And that’s what they want more than anything. More than peace, more than friends, more than family - they NEED control.
Political tags - such as royalist, communist, democrat, populist, fascist, liberal, conservative, and so forth - are never basic criteria. The human race divides politically into those who want people to be controlled and those who have no such desire.
The former are idealists acting from highest motives for the greatest good of the greatest number. The latter are surly curmudgeons, suspicious and lacking in altruism. But they are more comfortable neighbors than the other sort.”
Robert A. Heinlein