But what if through indoctrination you turn generations of Americans into sleeper agents who will begin frothing at the mouth with fear and anger at the thought of a ‘communist’.

Then start calling lunch ladies communists.

Until you realize that the media focus on Sanders from 2014-2020 was for the purpose of stoking fascism while maintaining an absolute stranglehold on socialist organization.

The state tends to do things.

I think you could argue that fascism is more generally the capitalist response to existential threats, which historically was domestic socialist and communist movements, but this definition leaves space to potentially include the present day US. Also, there is an interesting thread to pull relating to how the Trump admin is responding to crises borne out of the contradictions of neoliberalism, which in itself is a form of anticommunist repression created (in part) in response to the domestic socialist movements of the early 20th century.