Teddy's jingoistic appeal wouldn't sail today for a minute.
he loved him some war, but he only stopped loving war AFTER his son was killed in WWI.
The trust busting thing was good but it was only done because, like many today, the corporations had too much power and influence over Washington. And back then institutionalized politics was the name of the game and political power was much on par with corporations today and they didn't want to share power.
Teddy was complex at times and very transparent at others.
He did see the merit of helping the poor and the average man but he still was a Republican who felt that government while helping people shouldn't provide various "social" type programs that were being floated at the time and were proto versions of SS and Medicare.
Back then, the wealthy gave generously to the poor and established institutions to help the poor, yet, as small as our nation was at the time, poverty was still rampant and the "gifts" from the wealthy never ever filled the basic needs of those less fortunate.
There was still child labor and very poor working conditions rampant throughout the nation. It was only after the
Triangle Waist Shirt fire, the Cherry mine disaster and Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" that movement began in regards to workers rights, it certainly wasn't from Teddy.
And most of all let us all not forget that rampant government supported anti-union busting that was going on at all levels of society.
So while many here champion various slogans and statements from our former President, I choose to look at him as what he was, a jingoistic politician who was a man of his era, who was still living with the ghost of the Civil War and of moneyed robber barons who, unlike today, were put in their place by much powerful politicians.
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