I don’t blame Teddy for that.
CATO does: In 1908 came the National Conservation Commission and the Aldrich-Vreeland Act, the forerunner of the Federal Reserve and central banking, that authorized a National Monetary Commission. TR also pushed for graduated income and inheritance taxes and a “living wage.”
In a 1912 campaign speech, TR trashed the idea of limited government, saying: “This is a bit of outworn academic doctrine. . . . It can be applied with profit, if anywhere at all, only in a primitive community such as the United States at the end of the 18th century.”
The Regulatory State
Roosevelt’s program of greater centralization of power in Washington and in the executive branch took off in 1903 with the creation of the Department of Commerce and Labor, which contained a Bureau of Corporations to investigate corporate behavior. “I have always believed that it would also be necessary to give the National Government complete power over the organization and capitalization of all business concerns engaged in inter-State commerce,” said TR.
A Model Conservative?
Theodore Roosevelt, whom some conservatives would make a patron saint, spread over the United States a federal regulatory blanket that has often smothered businesses and stifled entrepreneurship. TR’s broadening of executive power upset the constitutional checks and balances of our republic. His imperialism set a precedent for U.S. meddling abroad and entangling alliances—a policy unfortunately praised by today’s neoconservatives. Mark Twain, who knew Theodore Roosevelt, may have exaggerated when he described him as “clearly insane.” But there’s no doubt that TR was a poor friend of the Constitution, capitalism, and peace.
Some conservative. No wonder the corporate RINOs loved him (Federal regulation was effectively a Tar Baby, giving big corporations an advantage in the economies of scale in the business if dealing with bureaucratic compliance). TR was the Schwarzenegger RINO of his day. His legacy is largely socialist, and somehow didn't make it into public school history books (gosh, I wonder why). The FDA, USDA, an illegal government monopoly in the land entertainment and maintenance...
So with a record like that, is he really such a conservative hero?