What does everyone think about when I say the name Teddy Roosevelt? War hero (Rough Riders), trust-buster, conservationist, and of course, teddy bears. Not big government guy, nor massive expansion of federal powers. What about Woodrow Wilson? WWI, League of Nations, income tax. His criticisms of the constitution, which he swore to uphold, and the declaration of independence, along with his massive attacks on civil liberties and domestic spying programs, are largely forgotten by history. Both presidents held Lincoln in high esteem as one of the greatest presidents in the history of our nation, largely because of the power he collected to himself at the expense of the states and people. Oops, I said I wouldn’t talk about Lincoln. Oh well. He deserves his own post, and I’ve already dedicated this one to T. Roosevelt and Wilson, so that’s it for Lincoln at this time.
Despite being from 2 different political parties (TR was a Republican, Wilson a Democrat) they shared a similar view. Basically, in the name of helping the people by controlling them from a central authority, the federal government should have ultimate authority over the US, its states, businesses, and citizens. Teddy Roosevelt wrapped his message up in a much more paternalistic, charismatic, friendly facade than Wilson did, but it boiled down to the same thing. Remember kids, the ‘progress’ in Progressive means progress towards subsuming the individual as an insignificant part of the state.
Reminds me of Bush and Obama– ‘Compassionate Conservative’ leading into ‘Progressive power-grabbing Liberal’. Or, ‘Progressive Lite’ and ‘Progressive Full-Flavor’.
Teddy Roosevelt pushed for more government control of the US economy. As we’ve seen in recent years with subsidies and incentives, government fails at picking winners and losers. Yet this is exactly what TR did when he enforced the Sherman Antitrust Act. He also set price limits on the railroads, leading to the decline of rail travel in this country, and ultimately to the government takeover of Amtrak. He also passed the Pure Food and Drug Act, despite there being no need. Snake oil cures were actually relatively rare, and about as popular as they are today. As for bad and tainted food, most supposed cases thrown around started as propaganda by the unions; ‘The Jungle’ by Upton Sinclair and how highly regarded that book is as a ‘portrait of the meat packing industry at the turn of the century’ illustrates my point perfectly. It was a work of fiction, and was a pro-union propaganda piece to push for more and more powerful unions to step in in factories (and by extension, all jobs). Yet people then, and people now, think it’s a reflection of the reality in those days. This quote on civil service explains his view of government power quite well:
“We grudge no man a fortune in civil life if it is honorably obtained and well used. It is not even enough that it should have gained without doing damage to the community. We should permit it to be gained only so long as the gaining represents benefit to the community. This, I know, implies a policy of a far more active governmental interference with social and economic conditions in this country than we have yet had, but I think we have got to face the fact that such an increase in governmental control is now necessary.” – Theodore Roosevelt, “THE NEW NATIONALISM”. Osawatomie, Kansas, August 31, 1910As far as TR as a good ol’ conservationist, well, not so much. Land had been well cared for in private hands in this country until he came along and created the National Forestry Service under the Department of the Interior. Sounds all well and good… except this is the government. The same entity that has brought us the DMV, DOT, Dept. of Education (and thereby destroyed education in this country), Obamacare, etc. Plus, cattle ranchers used their political clout to get grazing rights for their herds on federal land. And to keep competing ranchers from raising good cattle, they’d destroy the lands with the herds so nothing was left for the next herd. Not their problem. So yeah, the conservationist movement was a real winning idea from the start.
Teddy Roosevelt also started the real, major push for the income tax (which had been ruled unconstitutional previously). It finally passed, and was signed into law under Wilson
If Roosevelt felt the government wasn’t doing enough, and believed the Constitution was open to interpretation, Wilson was downright disdainful of the Constitution and felt that the government had to become a nanny state. He rejected the limited powers set out in the Constitution, and was disdainful of the natural law set out in the Declaration of Independence. His theory of government was based heavily upon European fascism.
His push to get us into WWI was to get his foot in the door for massive government intrusions into our every day lives. He purposely got US ships sunk, ignored warnings from the German government to stay away from the blockade of the British Isles, all to get us into the war. Once in the war, he set up a domestic spying scheme that would rival anything today. Mail was read by the nation’s postmasters, and censored if it disagreed with the war or the government. The press was censored. Neighbours spied on neighbours, and the Justice Department jailed and prosecuted tens of thousands of Americans under Wilson’s Sedition Act. A whole department of the government was created for war and domestic propaganda, the committee of Public Information.
Wilson also continued Roosevelt’s government takeover of the economy. Under Wilson’s War Industries Board, all industries in the US were taken over to produce for the war effort, and by extension, for the government.
Wilson also gave us the Federal Reserve, which in turn was at least partially responsible for the Crash of ’29 (and subsequent Great Depression), the recessions of the 70′s, the Savings and Loan crisis of the late 80′s and the subsequent recession, and the Housing Crash in ’07.
Even if not all these presidents’ policies stuck, they created precedent that future presidents took full advantage of. A reporter was recently investigated under Wilson’s Espionage Act. The conservation movement is still going, and has even morphed and grown, spawning things like the EPA and Greenpeace. Privacy, private industry, and our Constitutional rights get stomped on every day, and that started in large part with Wilson and T. Roosevelt.
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