"Now, if I leave my building and walk eight blocks to the left, I will pass three cameras on the street and only heaven knows how many private security cameras, including the several that my own building operates."
As for the rest of it, you're absolutely right in your analyses. There were strong left-wing movements in the US since the mid-19th century. Remember that the city of Milwaukee was founded largely by German socialists fleeing Bismarck in 1848 after a failed revolution. Milwaukee's last socialist mayor, a thoroughly wonderful man named Frank Zeidler, served until 1960. Milwaukee had a magnificent infrastructure of parks, streets & public works. They were often referred to as the "Sewer Socialists" because everything from the sewers on up worked as they were supposed to.
The labor movement was suppressed with violence, and even massacres, from the late 19th Century to WWII, as were certain other civil uprisings such as the Veterans' Bonus March. Here's a para on the Bonus Army from Wikipedia. You will recognize 2 names in it:
Retired Marine Corps Major General Smedley Butler, one of the most popular military figures of the time, visited their camp to back the effort and encourage them.[1] On July 28, U.S. Attorney General William D. Mitchell ordered the veterans removed from all government property. Washington police met with resistance, shots were fired and two veterans were wounded and later died. President Herbert Hoover then ordered the army to clear the veterans' campsite. Army Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur commanded the infantry and cavalry supported by six tanks. The Bonus Army marchers with their wives and children were driven out, and their shelters and belongings burned.
The IWW in the early 20th Century was a frankly socialist movement. You might read Steinbeck (Grapes of Wrath, In Dubious Battle) to get a sense of what leftist union organizing was like in the 30's.
The fact that we celebrate Labor Day when we do rather than on May 1 like the rest of the world is not an accident. That day was chosen, back in the 1890's, to dissociate it from the international labor movement.
The Dies Committee in the 30's was the precursor to HUAC.
As for the end of WWII, there was certainly an intensification of anti-communist fervor. Significantly (to me, at least), the old War Department became the Department of Defense, and the old OSS became the CIA. Those two name changes--so doublespeak-ish in nature, heralded in the new era of Permanent War.
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