Likely, as communism in the US was rampant prior to 1945. The years prior to the Depression encouraged such communist leanings as “unions”, “workers’ rights” and “universal suffrage”. FDR, while not an abject communist, did have ideological leanings toward communism due to his receiving LOTS of money from New York Unions. The difference can be found in his objection to having federal employees unionized.
They difference was that low-info voters of that time didn’t understand the difference of an socio-economic control and a socio-governing control. Communism is an socio-economic control that extends to the governing control (i.e., the government IS the economy).
We did attempt to “de-infiltrate” the communist influence in our federal government but, McCarthy took an ugly (and unconstitutional) turn when he looked to private citizens and private business. Don’t get me wrong, I believe McCarthy was sniffing the right trail, he just over-reached and got sidetracked.
