The correct answer to this open question is the following.
Societal norms were challenged and contributed to the Palmer Raids and McCarthyism and the Red Scare in that people believed in what the government said. In those years -1919 and 1920- the idea that Communism and anarchism were two of the worst things that could happen to the United States, really sacred the US society. People firmly believed in the status quo, in the conservationist social norms that have been served the US to maintain certain peace and stability. People feared that anarchism and Communism could challenge the American Way.
That is why the US Department of Justice conducted the Palmer Raids of 1919, to arrest and deport Communists that could threaten the stability of the US. The same happened when Wisconsin Republican Senator, Joseph McCarthy accused that federal government officials and members of the military had ties with Communists groups, in what was known as the McCarthyism, in the 1940s.
The system of laws was called apartheid.
