TR was a monster. He was as socialist as FDR. And he gave us Wilson.
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>> “And he gave us Wilson.” <<
Deliberately!
That was the only purpose for the “Bull Moose” party.
I’d have to disagree. He was a renaissance man who believed in practicing gun-boat diplomacy against the crumbling Spanish empire in the New World. He was a lifelong anti-communist, a naturalist and taxidermist who ate all of his kills, even rhinos and ostriches, stuffing their skin. You really must visit Sagamore Hill next time you’re in New York.
And he hadn’t meant to get Wilson elected. He’d made a foolish pledge not to run for a third term, since he had become POTUS by virtue of the assassination of McKinley. But he became so dissatisfied with Taft’s ineptitude that he butted in as a third party candidate, which split the vote and gave the Dems a victory. He loudly protested Wilson’s refusal to involve himself in the European war, calling him a coward. Ultimately, America had to get into the war, but not at a time of anyone’s choosing. The fractures that occurred because of the prolonged “great war” made WW II inevitable. If America had gotten in earlier, it might have ended earlier, before the poison gas, the millions killed on the battlefield, and before the insane corporal went into politics. TR was right.