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1. This is a really fun piece, and points to a pet peeve of mine, which is the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt. Both @ewarren and @BernieSanders cite TR as someone to emulate. They don't understand Teddy Roosevelt, at all. TR represented in many ways the worst of progressivism.
@ewarren @BernieSanders 2. For one thing, Teddy Roosevelt was strongly pro-monopoly, and deeply disliked the Sherman Act. For another, he was an ally of J.P. Morgan and the bankers. And for yet another, he was a strong proponent of white supremacy, imperial aggression, and eugenics.
@ewarren @BernieSanders 3. TR wanted a strong central government, not to break up monopolies, but to place public centralized government on top of monopoly power. If that sounds like fascism, well, it wasn't quite that in 1912, but some saw Mussolini as a "Latin Teddy Roosevelt" a few years later.
@ewarren @BernieSanders 4. Roosevelt's autocratic tendencies were obvious at the time. There's a reason W.E.B. Dubois endorsed Woodrow Wilson in 1912 over Teddy Roosevelt.
@ewarren @BernieSanders 5. TR sought to create 'good trusts,' basically large corporations who did what he said. Those who didn't would get antitrust prosecution. Teddy Roosevelt was somewhat like Donald Trump, a white supremacist trying to concentrate power in his own hands.
@ewarren @BernieSanders 6. The real model @BernieSanders and @ewarren seek to emulate is FDR, influenced heavily by Louis Brandeis and his vision of "industrial democracy." Anyway, fun piece @risenc! Thanks for doing Teddy Roosevelt right!
@ewarren @BernieSanders @risenc 7. Yes, Teddy Roosevelt often expressed his desire to go to war simply because he abhorred the 'peace faction.' He believed life was about different races conquering each other and absorbing each others' energy through violence. Really weird dark stuff.
@ewarren @BernieSanders @risenc 8. One last thing. Teddy Roosevelt's favorite founder was Alexander Hamilton, because he saw in Hamilton's lust for military power and the Federalist Party's elitism something to emulate. TR just bemoaned Hamilton's refusal to manipulate the masses in a democracy.
