Does The Crucible relate to current politics?

In the sense that the literal witch hunt portrayed in The Cruciblecan be compared to more figurative witch hunts in the twenty-first century, the play is still relevant to politics today. When Miller wrote the play, he had the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), run by Senator Joseph McCarthy, in mind. This committee, under McCarthy's direction, conducted a figurative witch hunt in the United States in the middle of the twentieth...

In the sense that the literal witch hunt portrayed in The Crucible can be compared to more figurative witch hunts in the twenty-first century, the play is still relevant to politics today. When Miller wrote the play, he had the activities of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), run by Senator Joseph McCarthy, in mind. This committee, under McCarthy's direction, conducted a figurative witch hunt in the United States in the middle of the twentieth century.  They were hunting communists, seen as the source of a so-called potential national threat. One of the committee's most notorious tactics was to ask those who confessed to communist ties to name names, just as a person who confessed to witchcraft was not believed unless they named other witches they had seen with the devil.

Now, one might argue that there is a figurative witch hunt for Muslims. Followers of Islam are targeted, and some people assume that these individuals are terrorists because of their religion. They are subjected to hate crimes, national scrutiny, and even humiliating laws that prevent their entering some countries if they come from certain other countries.

Anytime a country wants a scapegoat, a witch hunt could come next. It happened in the 1980s as well, when America wanted to place blame somewhere for the AIDS epidemic.