Progressivism back then was more likely to lead to Fsscism than Communism. Wilson and FDR leaned toward Fascism. The big centerpiece of the New Deal, though it was dtopped by SCOTUS, was the National Recovery Administration whivh wrote the rules for every enterprise that opted in. If you did not choose to join your business was labeled unpatriotic. Who wrote these rules and regs? Not govt bureaucrats. Chosen reps of chosen businesses in each field. My family had five fruit and veg stores in Manhattan and the Bronx. My grandfathrr, an immigrant from Italy but a fifteen year citizen joined the NRA. He found tge rules strangled his businesses. Who wrote those rules? Representatives of A&P and Safeway stores. Before the NRA disappeared four of my grandfather’s stores were gone. All the fault of the NRA ? No. But a good portion of the blame goes to the fascistic New Deal.
>>Progressivism back then was more likely to lead to Fsscism than Communism.
*sigh*
No. Progressivism itself was designed to lead to communism. Go read their own writing from the early days. To get there, it had to change the American way of thinking. The NRA and New Deal was not an endpoint. It was just a mind-changer in their very patient game.
Remember that fascism is just communism without the international element. But, the Great Depression gave them a golden opportunity to take a nation of individualists and force them to think like serfs who belong to the government.