I've blogged a lot recently about personal responsibility and unwelcome government regulation. As a result, many of my more conservative friends and some of my more liberal ones have told me that I am starting to sound like a Republican. Well if they are referencing former President Teddy Roosevelt when they speak of my supposedly newly found Republicanism, then I guess I can agree with them.
When I was a kid growing up in New Jersey, the political landscape was even more convoluted then it is today. In the tri-state area of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, there were many liberal Republicans who were holdovers from the mid-nineteenth century. Some people may recall Lowell Weicker, Jr., Jacob Javits and John Lindsay. Weicker ran against Ronald Reagan in 1980 for the Republican Presidential nomination and later left the party and declared himself an independent. Lindsay switched to the Democratic Party in 1971 while he was serving as Mayor of New York. In more recent times right here in Minnesota, one could point to former Senator Dave Durenberger and former Governor Arne Carlson as politicians cut from the same cloth. As a kid, I never really paid much attention to party affiliations. Most of the time, I was busy encouraging my working class father to vote for Gus Hall instead of George Wallace, a Democrat and a segregationist.
In fact, in its early years the Republican Party was responsible for bringing forward legislation that included a national banking system, protectionist tariffs, aid to education and agriculture, excise taxes and the creation of our national debt. Those things don't really jive with today's Republican talking points. Not only that, but the GOP was founded in large part by progressives and radicals in New England, New York and the Upper Midwest, today's so called Blue States.
Which brings me to one of my favorite American Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. I have found myself in recent weeks thinking a lot about him especially since the Minnesota State Fair is upon us. It was at the State Fair that then President Roosevelt gave his famous "big stick" speech. I think he said something along the lines of, "Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far." That statement became emblematic of his foreign policy, the idea being that the threat of overwhelming force should serve as a sufficient deterrent to avoid conflict. He proved to be remarkably successful at doing so, and was the first U.S. President to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
While that is probably what most people remember about Teddy Roosevelt, it is far from his most significant statement. Roosevelt was a true progressive. For instance, he was the first U.S. President to call for universal health care and national health insurance. He advocated for a living wage. He lobbied the judiciary on behalf of labor unions in their disputes with big business. He dissolved forty monopolistic corporations and called for a "Square Deal" that ensured a fair shake for both the average citizen as well as for the businessman. He instituted new regulations that limited railroad fees and set standards for purer food and drugs, and, in probably his most significant achievement, he founded the National Park System while promoting conservationism and the efficient use of our natural resources.
While under pressure from the conservative wing of the Republican Party, Roosevelt ultimately left them to form his own party which was aptly named the Progressive Party, colloquially known as the Bull Moose Party. Under that banner, he continued to espouse his ideas of social equality and responsible capitalism.
Don't get me wrong, Roosevelt was far from perfect. He was often extremely political and disingenuous, and he was oddly an avowed racist declaring that the indigenous peoples of Africa, Asia, Australia and the Americas were "savages" who could only advance themselves under the guidance of white people. For someone who grew up in a house full of abolitionist Lincoln supporters, it is strange that he felt the United States was justified in propagating war against Native Americans based on some ethnocentric ideal of cultural superiority.
Nonetheless, during his time as our leader, Roosevelt worked hard for the principles in which he believed. That is why I wonder what he might think if he was with us today. What kind of speech might he deliver at the Minnesota State Fair circa 2009?
A rugged individualist, Roosevelt would probably be appalled at what is our lack of personal responsibility in almost everything we do. We have become a land of people who spend more time pointing our fingers at one another then we do examining our own lives and how we might better live them. We have exploited and destroyed many of our natural resources in the name of corporate and personal greed. We have a nation where health care is considered a privilege and not a basic human right. We have seen how the abandonment of sound regulation of the financial markets helped foster the worst finacial crisis since the Great Depression. We have experienced a widening of the gap between the rich and the poor. We have witnessed not "speaking softly and carrying a big stick" but instead bellicose war mongering and "big stick" imperialism. And we have watched on the sidelines while our food system has been hijacked by corporations whose sole purpose is to make larger and larger profits while disregarding the health and well being of the very nation and its people which have made those profits possible. I don't think Roosevelt would be very pleased or happy to see what we have made of ourselves. I don't think he would be very pleased at all.
As for my friends suggesting that I am now espousing Republican values, all I can say is that I hope that the values I hold dearly are American values regardless of which party or political affiliation lays claims to them. Just because someone is a Republican, a Democrat, a Libertarian or a Socialist doesn't mean that common sense should be left at door.