Creating the "Imperial Presidency"

The Comrade gave a speech in Osawattomie, Kansas, yesterday, at the same place where Teddy Roosevelt apparently launched his third-party run (and loss) as a Progressive. The Comrade implied a comparison to TR, saying TR was called a "socialist, even a communist."

According to Wikipedia, here's the Progressiver Party (Bull Moose) platform:

• A National Health Service to include all existing government medical agencies.
• Social insurance, to provide for the elderly, the unemployed, and the disabled
• Limited injunctions in strikes
• A minimum wage law for women
• An eight hour workday
• A federal securities commission
• Farm relief
• Workers' compensation for work-related injuries
• An inheritance tax
• A Constitutional amendment to allow a Federal income tax

The political reforms proposed included:

• Women's suffrage
• Direct election of Senators [they had been elected by state legislatures]
• Primary elections for state and federal nominations 

The platform also urged states to adopt measures for "direct democracy", including:

• The recall election (citizens may remove an elected official before the end of his term
• The referendum (citizens may decide on a law by popular vote)
• The initiative (citizens may propose a law by petition and enact it by popular vote)
• Judicial recall (when a court declares a law unconstitutional, the citizens may override that ruling by popular vote)

However, the main theme of the platform was an attack on the domination of politics by business interests, which allegedly controlled both established parties. The platform asserted that to destroy this invisible Government, to dissolve the unholy alliance between corrupt business and corrupt politics is the first task of the statesmanship of the day. To that end, the platform called for:

• Strict limits and disclosure requirements on political campaign contributions
• Registration of lobbyists
• Recording and publication of Congressional committee proceedings

Besides these measures, the platform called for reductions in the tariff, limitations on naval armaments by international agreement and improvements to inland waterways.

The biggest controversy at the convention was over the platform section dealing with trusts and monopolies such as Standard Oil. The convention approved a strong "trust-busting" plank, but Roosevelt had it replaced with language that spoke only of "strong National regulation" and "permanent active [Federal] supervision" of major corporations.

So let's think about good ol' TR and his times. The big trusts did exist -- by act of congress. You can't have a trust or a cartel or anything like that unless you have legislation to enforce it. However, the Sherman Anti-Trust was already in place in 1912, when TR made his little Bull Moose bid. And the Sherman Act would have been unecessary had the Senate not strongly enforced the trusts. Many senators at the time owned pieces of the trusts. The trusts supposedly "protected" US trade and production, most notably the Sugar Trust, which banned import of sugar, or put really stiff tariffs on imports to "protect" the sugar industry mostly in Louisiana and Texas. Every state had their local hobby horse industry and the state legislatures elected the US Senators.

But read these above provisions carefully. The useful ones are in practice already. Many of them also were promoted by Woodrow Wilson, (I would call him a totalitarian and he was openly a racist) when he was in office. Some have been tried and abandoned -- actually much of the crap Wilson promoted was so disastrous economically and every other way it had to be repealed or reversed by Calvin Coolidge. And note that TR didn't favor the Anti-Trust laws, he wanted "strong National regulation" and "permanent active [Federal] supervision" of major corporations.

And exactly how do you break up the corrupt relationship between business and government by allowing the government to regulate business? Looks to me more like you're delivering a honey pot into the hands of poltiicians. And that's pretty much how it's all turned out, isn't it?

Additionally, in 1906/07, I think it was, the US suffered a major financial crisis. TR went to J.P. Morgan and asked for a bail-out. Morgan agreed. But TR didn't think it proper that a private financier had more money than the federal government. TR didn't trust private enterprise at all. You could say he was a control freak who didn't trust anything that he couldn't drag around by a bridle. TR was afraid J.P. Morgan would try to dictate to the federal government. Morgan never did. TR later commented that, unlike most robber barons, "J.P. Morgan is a gentleman."

I suspect TR was projecting his own power lust on the Captains of Industry and was genuinely and happily surprised that Morgan never even considered delcaring himself king.

Also, while he was President, TR also sent the US 7th fleet -- the Navy -- on a trip around the world, especially across the Pacific. This was partly in efforts to more or less shake a fist at Japan. The US and other western nations had ever had problems with Japan for not allowing ships like whalers into its ports for things like fresh food and water. Japan nurtured its resentments and struck back on Dec. 7, 1941.

In short, Teddy Roosevelt is regarded by many, if not most, historians as the man who created the "Imperial Presidency" in America. Before TR, the Office of the President was much, much weaker. Most power resided in Congress. TR wanted to weaken congress, shifting much of its power to the populace. Not a good idea. The USA has never been a democracy -- always a republic.

This is because the public tends to sway with fads and fancy -- and with specious promises of "free" milk and honey, a chicken in every pot, a car in every garage -- and that's not a rational or a viable way to govern. It's like Ben Franklin said, "pure" democracy is "two wolves and sheep deciding what to have for dinner."

Personally, I always considered the two Roosevelts -- Teddy and Franklin D. -- as the two presidents most destructive to personal liberty in the USA. And they were both very popular personally, like the Comrade. Some people call this combination of attractiveness and abuse of power "demogoguery." I do. John F. Kennedy was another one. He drove the steel industry out of the USA.

And I think the Comrade would like to take this all one step further and create the "Totalitarian Presidency."

What do you think?

Save the Republic.