Trump sort of reminds me of Teddy Roosevelt

[Son_of_a_Rich]

I wonder if anyone back then was like, “there was no blood. Maybe the contents of his pocket were predrilled, and the gunman was firing blanks.”

[Thing.Fish]

Of course, TR was a far better person than Trump in many important ways, but I do see some similarities. They both wanted to have a third term (though of course TR’s wish to do so only violated norms, not the actual Constitution). They both wanted to be the unquestioned leader of a party of yes-men; when he couldn’t take over the GOP, Teddy proceeded to form his own Progressive Party.

I think it might be fair to describe them as the two Presidents who had the highest opinion of themselves, which is a pretty tough bar to clear.

[Frodo]

Well may be, but TR at least had some basis to think well of himself.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@Son_of_a_Rich

I wonder if anyone back then was like, “there was no blood. Maybe the contents of his pocket were predrilled, and the gunman was firing blanks.”

I get the obvious comment about today’s world, but since Roosevelt was indeed visibly bleeding into his shirt, the answer would still be no. And if, as a CT, your riposte would be “they used a fake blood capsule, like in Grand Guignol theater,” putting you on ignore would be the best response.

Somebody must have researched when false flag CTs became common, but the best I can find is that the claims spiked early in the 21st century and soared upward ever since. Social media is as always the culprit.

[Son_of_a_Rich]

I should have ended it with a /s.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

Definitely saw the implied /s. The obsessive inside me needed to research the claims despite knowing that you were being snarky. For me that’s the most fun.

[Jackmannii]

What a terrible thing to accuse Teddy Roosevelt of.

TR’s achievements in environmentalism and breaking up huge corporations stand in direct opposition to Trumpianism. TR also signed the first Pure Food and Drug Act into law in 1904. Can’t see the current bozo doing anything like that.

The parallel with Kaiser Wilhelm II works a lot better. Both were/are flaming egotists, loudmouths and extreme nationalists whose careless and bizarre statements alienated friends and foes alike, and were very much warmongers.

On the other hand, Wilhelm was reputably intelligent and liked dogs (dachshunds, naturally). Wilhelm also didn’t have much to do with women aside from siring an heir.

[Frodo]

@Jackmannii

What a terrible thing to accuse Teddy Roosevelt of.

Is that aimed at me?

[Melbourne]

@Son_of_a_Rich

I wonder if anyone back then was like, “there was no blood. Maybe the contents of his pocket were predrilled, and the gunman was firing blanks.”

Of course. It was a notably vicious campaign, it was dark, there was very little press coverage, no pictures, and for the first 24 hours even the papers had no real idea what exactly had happened.

People who didn’t like him immediately suggested that it was all a fake, that it was a wax bullet, that he wasn’t shot at all, that he’d hired someone to do it, that he was doing it for sympathy or to demonstrate how tough he was, and that he was a lying liar who couldn’t be trusted about anything.

It was pure luck he survived – the bullet went right through his speech and hit his glasses case before breaking his rib, so even apart from scrambling for coverage, it all looked a bit unlikely.

[Son_of_a_Rich]

After his trip up the Amazon, he really didn’t have anything to prove, toughnesswise.

[CalMeacham]

@Moriarty

Both intervened into foreign affairs only tangentially related to the United States (TR brokered peace between Russia and Japan)

…for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. If Trump ever reads this, the ketchup’ll hit the ceiling.

Teddy was the first American to win a Nobel prize, and he donated the proceeds to charity. Fat chance Trump would do that.

[Little_Nemo]

@Exapno_Mapcase

People today celebrate his inviting Booker T. Washington to the White House, e.g., but forget that the blowback meant he never did that again and in fact continued the government’s heavy hand on blacks. Nor was he a true populist. The literal Populist Party of the 1890s would not have backed Roosevelt. Teddy battled Wall Street interests but that was about all they had in common. Populists were egalitarian, Teddy was elitist. He liked men of action, or at least ranchers in the wild, rather than farmers.

It’s tough for us in the 21st century to get into the mindset of people back around 1900. But I feel the idea that populism was equatable with racial equality is questionable. There were some people in the movement that saw racial equality as a goal. But there were plenty of others who accepted the widespread belief of black inferiority.

[Moriarty]

@Son_of_a_Rich

After his trip up the Amazon, he really didn’t have anything to prove, toughnesswise.

Yeah, but that came a year after he was shot. (And probably reduced his lifespan more than the bullet)

…

As I understand it, including Roosevelt on Mount Rushmore at the time it was built was somewhat controversial. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was a big Teddy fan, but not everybody of the era was. Granted, Roosevelt had died when it was constructed, but it sort of reminds me of how Trump sycophants are eager to erect monuments to him.

…

One Roosevelt effort during his presidency was to try to simplify the spelling of the English language (i.e. spelling through as thru; it’s also why Americans spell gaol as jail, and why labor lost its U).

It was widely mocked, but for a time he directed the White House to use this amended system. It sounds positively Trumpian to try to change something as fundamental to society as how we spell.

Indeed, barely a day after Roosevelt’s announcement, the New York Times reported that, “President Roosevelt is the laughing stock of literary London,” adding that newspaper writers there were now simplifying his surname, referring to him as Rusvelt and Ruzvelt, while Carnegie was caricatured as Andru Karnegi and Karnege. (American papers also had their fun with the men’s names. The Baltimore Sun asked whether the president would start spelling his name Rusevelt or “get down to the fact and spell it Butt-in-sky?”)

Another report summed up the reaction across England: “Mr. Roosevelt, heretofore regarded as only a little lower than the angels, is now characterized as whimsical, silly, headstrong, and despotic.”

Nowhere was the reaction more negative than in the U.S. Congress. where many members were irritated that Roosevelt had bypassed them…

While Roosevelt’s reforms had a few supporters, the prevailing view was that he had overstepped his authority. “Some time before very long, the people of the United States are going to insist on having a President that will attend to his own business,” one Congressman suggested.

Two days later, on December 12, 1906, the House voted 142 to 25 to withhold funding for the printing of any government document that deviated from conventional spelling. One impassioned foe declared, “If the President can change 300 words, he can change the spelling of 300,000.”

Teddy Roosevelt’s Bold (But Doomed) Battle to Change American Spelling | HISTORY

@Little_Nemo

there were plenty of others who accepted the widespread belief of black inferiority.

This would include TR

He…believed firmly in the existence of a racial hierarchy, which shaped his attitudes on race relations, land rights, American imperialism and the emerging—and disturbing—science of eugenics…

“As a race and in the mass they are altogether inferior to the whites,” he confided to a friend in a 1906 letter. Ten years later, he told Senator Henry Cabot Lodge that “the great majority of Negroes in the South are wholly unfit for the suffrage” and that giving them voting rights could “reduce parts of the South to the level of Haiti.”

Roosevelt also believed that Black men made poor soldiers. He denigrated the efforts of the buffalo soldiers who fought alongside his men at San Juan Hill during the Spanish-American War, falsely claiming that they ran away under fire. “Negro troops were shirkers in their duties and would only go as far as they were led by white officers,” he wrote. In reality, the buffalo soldiers served with distinction, and several men were officially recognized for their bravery. Twenty-six died on the slopes of San Juan Hill.

As for Native Americans, Roosevelt’s considerable time spent ranching in the Dakota Territory only hardened his mindset toward them, years before he became president. “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indian is the dead Indian,” he said in 1886, “but I believe nine out of every ten are, and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely into the case of the tenth. The most vicious cowboy has more moral principle than the average Indian.”…

And his desire to reset racial hierarchies wasn’t limited to the Western Hemisphere. “It is of incalculable importance that America, Australia, and Siberia should pass out of the hands of their red, black and yellow aboriginal owners," Roosevelt wrote in his 1889 book _The Winning of the West, "_and become the heritage of the dominant world races.”

How Teddy Roosevelt's Belief in a Racial Hierarchy Shaped His Policies | HISTORY

[Chronos]

@CalMeacham

Teddy was the first American to win a Nobel prize, and he donated the proceeds to charity. Fat chance Trump would do that.

Of course he would. He’d donate it all to the Trump Foundation. Which has the charitable mission of giving Trump the lifestyle he wants.

But the former president to whom Trump is most similar was Jackson, and that’s not a compliment to either man. Both were genocidally-racist anti-intellectual tyrannical populists, who tore down important institutions just because they could, doing severe damage to the nation in the process. The biggest difference is that Jackson, despite his many moral failings, was a genuine badass, as opposed to a tub of lard who thinks walking a golf course is too much exercise.

[Little_Nemo]

@Chronos

The biggest difference is that Jackson, despite his many moral failings, was a genuine badass, as opposed to a tub of lard who thinks walking a golf course is too much exercise.

Another key difference is that Jackson was a self-made millionaire. He didn’t grow up in a household of of inherited wealth.

[abcdefghij]

@Moriarty

also why Americans spell gaol as jail

Your broader point notwithstanding, even by the standards of English lexicography, “gaol” is stupid

[Moriarty]

@Chronos

But the former president to whom Trump is most similar was Jackson, and that’s not a compliment to either man. Both were genocidally-racist anti-intellectual tyrannical populists, who tore down important institutions just because they could, doing severe damage to the nation in the process. The biggest difference is that Jackson, despite his many moral failings, was a genuine badass, as opposed to a tub of lard who thinks walking a golf course is too much exercise.

That is a good comparison. But while Andrew Jackson ended the National Bank of the U.S. because it catered to special interests, I tend to think that Trump would have supported such an institution (and finagled his way as its President) - Trump loves getting money from banks.

At the very least, it’s hard to imagine that Trump would ever be hostile to paper currency.

@abcdefghij

even by the standards of English lexicography, “gaol” is stupid

Here’s a list of the spelling changes. A lot of these are modern American versions of words, where a U or an E at the end has been dropped.

Simplified Spelling Board’s 300 Spellings - Children of the Code

I just find it amusing that, as President, TR saw fit to involve himself in all manner of trying to improve society. Requiring college football to change its rules is another example.

How Teddy Roosevelt Saved Football | HISTORY

This quote sure sounds like it could come from Trump

In 1903, the president told an audience, “I believe in rough games and in rough, manly sports. I do not feel any particular sympathy for the person who gets battered about a good deal so long as it is not fatal.”

[Son_of_a_Rich]

@Moriarty

Here’s a list of the spelling changes.

He had a grudge against “ed” for past tense, preferring just a “t”. I think of TR every time I write “estivate” and “etiology”.

[CalMeacham]

@abcdefghij

Your broader point notwithstanding, even by the standards of English lexicography, “gaol” is stupid

No, it’s a standard form still used in Britain.

I encountered it in a story when I was in grade school, and everyone in the clss felt the way you do. But I susect the editors of our reader were uncharcteristically crafty, throwing insomething as unusual as that.

[Chronos]

Yes, it’s standard, but it’s also stupid.