Progressives, I think, need for us as conservatives to mislabel them as communists. I think they desperately need it, actually. Any time we can go around tilting at windmills that's to the benefit of progressives.
In reality, progressivism and communism are deeply hateful of each other and staunch enemies. There's a lot of bad blood under that bridge and if you get near it it stinks of putrefaction. Palmer really hammers this point home. He's not the only one BTW, but as the primary lead of a Red Scare it's hard to ignore.
To say that because Palmer was a conservative simply because he was anti-communist - now THAT would be a huge mistake.
I don’t really see a difference between Communism and “Progressivism.” The infamous 1948 party under Henry Wallace was a pro-Soviet. They use the latter name because Communism has a negative connotation (as does “liberal”). I find it amusing all these Demonrats today using the “P” moniker, as it is simply a euphemism for Communist. Same with “Social Democrat.” All just different names for massive government-centered totalitarianism.
Palmer, from my understanding, was just a regular left-leaning Democrat during his time as a Pennsylvania Congressman. He struck me as being one of those “a Conservative is a liberal who got mugged.” In his case, the attempted assassination woke him up. Given that he helped bring in a young (and Republican) J. Edgar Hoover into the government (which the author unfortunately condemns as a negative — and although Hoover did have some negatives on his watch, I think he ultimately did more good than bad), I would tend to label Palmer as having left behind leftism.
If I had been President Harding, I’d have preferred to keep Palmer. The next 2 AGs were terrible (the corrupt Harry Daugherty, who helped spring Eugene Debs from prison, and Harlan Fiske Stone, who was so left wing that FDR promoted him to Chief Justice despite being a “Republican”).