Posted on 06/08/2017 1:39:50 PM PDT by ProgressingAmerica
Common knowledge has it that the Red Scare involved Joseph McCarthy, HUAC, and Cold War highlights. While all of this is true, that's the second Red Scare of the 1960's.
The first Red Scare is far more interesting. The first Red Scare involved progressives using the force of big government against their ideological opponents, the communists. While it is true that (probably) the two most high profile people to be deported were Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman - both anarchists(not communists) - that does not change the fact that one of the main goals of the 1917-1919 purge was to get rid of reds.
Red-deporter in chief, Woodrow Wilson
While thousands of suspected reds were rounded up during the Palmer Raids, the grand total of communists/anarchists deported in the end was 556. For anyone interested, here is a report in front of the House Committee on Immigration and Naturalization from April 21st, 1920, titled "Communist and Anarchist Deportation Cases".
I've stressed the point on multiple times both directly and indirectly that progressivism and communism are competing big government ideologies, and this is probably one of the most high profile examples.
That does not mean progressives are good people. I still think progressives are more dangerous than communists and this does not change that opinion. It isn't until the 1960's (generally) that progressivism and communism started to mean the same thing.(the merging of the two ideologies)
“Common knowledge has it that the Red Scare involved Joseph McCarthy, HUAC, and Cold War highlights. While all of this is true, that’s the second Red Scare of the 1960’s. “
Not the 1960s. 1948 to late 1950s. Investigation of communists under the House Un-American Activities Committee [HUAC] started many years before Senator McCarthy got going, but the whole era has been retroactively tagged with the label “McCarthyism”.
He was eliminating competing factions.
Corrected. Thank you.
The only difference between them is that the progressives have not started the killing...yet.
I’m looking at the growth of government over the last 100+ years since the progressives arrived on the scene.
It started with the progressives.
Kind of like the Communists and the Nazis, Stalin and Hitler. They hated each other because they were rivals for the same kind of power. And the Communist propagandists successfully put forward the delusion that the Nazis were conservatives.
I would guess that Wilson was taking actions to reduce the chance of a Communist revolution in the US.
Considering that these were deportations (foreigners) it should not technically be called a purge.
Palmer Raids. Emma Goldman, Alexander Berkman, some of the Sacco & Vanzetti gang but not those two.
bkmk
Wilson deported them and then they came back as refugees during the days of FDR and infested our teacher colleges.
So it CAN be done!
I suppose the answer is yes, but following the Rooseveltian/Wilsonian model will only lead to further constitutional erosion.
He should have deported more.
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