Posted on 10/02/2001 10:16:53 AM PDT by Benrand
First, I hope people don't start throwing around the f-word ("fascist"). TR died in 1919, and we don't know what his response to fascism would have been had he lived. I suspect that he would eventually have been appalled, as another tough-minded imperialist, Churchill, eventually was. Though I have no way of knowing, I can't help thinking that such polemical labels clarify nothing, but simply confuse matters.
Roosevelt was a very complicated figure, heavily influenced by the attitudes of his time, yet sometimes able to see beyond them. He was undoubtably very ethnocentric, as people always are, yet he was able to see beyond some of the narrow prejudices of his day in a way that most people were not.
Secondly, I hope we can separate out the love or respect for war and longing for conquest and colonies from the basic perception that when nations get soft and contented they are challenged and defeated by tougher powers. This is something that was true before 19th century imperialism and that is true now, and will be true in the future. We have to reject much of what TR said and believed, but in this perception he was correct, though we may draw different implications from it than he did.
It's hard to sort out how much bad and good, right and wrong there was in Roosevelt. That's one thing that makes him a compelling figure today, along with his undoubted energy, patriotism, public-spiritedness and intelligence. You can find his books on line and more about him as well.
Come on x, don't be so bloodless. He was a great guy - even if you have mixed feelings about his politics.
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