One thing that in my experience I have discovered that not a lot of people know, is that the Wilsonian progressives used Camp Upton as a concentration camp prior to deportation.
See here.
"It could never happen here" - "It already has before...", is exactly right.
Progressives put communists into concentration camps. They won't have any problem putting us into concentration camps either. These are very bad people.
Yep...
Not giving up my rifles, won’t get on that bus.
But yes, I agree.
I get the admiration for the aims, results, and, even, methods of the Palmer raids, but as you both point out here, these are powers that betray the purpose and limits of the American federal structure.
The Constitution allows for temporary suspension of certain rights, but Wilson, Palmer and Hoover expected these powers and methods to be permanent and thereby perceived the authority under the Espionage and Sedition acts to have no limits.
The anarchist / communist bombings did justify a strong federal response. But, as with all things progressive, the Wilson admin response was but an excuse for an extension of federal and progressive powers.
Sadly, the next crisis, also pumped by progressives, Prohibition, actually did set many of those powers permanently.
I’d also add to the list of abuses of the progressives the incarceration of Japanese-Americans during WWII.