Direct confrontation of red-hunters earned public respect as hysteria ebbed

Evidence

Palmer fumed at Post for coddling and encouraging Bolsheviks, and a group of roo per cent American Congressmen tried to impeach him for disloyalty. The public hysteria, however, was breaking. Before a Congressional committee, Post turned on his critics with a savagely brilliant defense. Instead of unanimously excoriating him, many newspapers commended the pugnacious old liberal for simply doing his duty. — John Higham, Strangers in the Land, 1386

Categorization

• XREF: Directly tests the backfire question: Post’s moral correction of Palmer’s nativism did NOT backfire into more support for Palmer — it won sympathy once the underlying labor panic dissolved, suggesting correction efficacy is gated by the social basis of the panic.