Let’s pretend you don’t know anything about the Palmer Raids or the politics of early twentieth-century America. Reading this quote about Secretary of State A. Mitchell Palmer in Time Magazine’s worst cabinet ministers of all time article:
Charged with enforcing the law, Palmer trampled the Constitution instead. With the Bolshevik Revolution stoking fears over the spread of Communism, Palmer—using the 1917 Espionage Act and 1918 Sedition Act as justification—engineered the mass-arrest of left-wing individuals, dissidents and foreigners. He detained some without charge and deported others. Though Palmer meant to combat Communism, he instead helped usher in the civil liberties movement. The ACLU was formed partly in response to the “Palmer Raids.”
Now, quick, without looking it up, what political party would you assume he and the presidential administration belonged to? I included the entire blurb, editing nothing out.
Nope, sorry – you’d probably guess wrong (I’m guessing that’s on purpose). Palmer served under Woodrow Wilson and they were both long-time Democrats. The Espionage Act of 1917 and the Sedition act of 1918 were passed at the urging of Woodrow Wilson.