Donald Trump has gone from red hats to red hate.

With his popularity stuck below 40% in most polls, the president knows that if the fall elections become a referendum on his record, Republicans will lose. So he’s turned to his favorite strategies of fear and falsehood.

Trump has long pitted Red America against Blue America and donned a crimson cap to symbolize his tribal loyalties. But after far-left candidates won Democratic primaries in New York and Colorado, he quickly transformed red from a revered color to a reviled one.

“There is now a resurgence of the communist menace in our land,” the president said at a rally in South Dakota. “Communism is a mortal threat to American liberty.”

Red-baiting is a deeply dangerous and despicable strategy, but it has been a central part of American politics for more than a century, since the Bolshevik Revolution transformed Russia in 1917. And it keeps resurfacing because it works, which is why Democrats face a critical dilemma.

The successful insurgents, some of them Democratic Socialists, have excited and engaged primary voters, especially young ones. And they’ve introduced innovative campaign tactics using social media that amplify their........

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