Portland Studio ~ Blog

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Poster by Matt Mantooth

Theodore Roosevelt fits into a Presidential mold all his own. He aims were enacted, it seems, by tireless effort and sheer force of will. He died in his sleep on July 6, 1919. This led Wilson’s vice president to say, “Death had to take Roosevelt sleeping, for if he had been awake, there would have been a fight.”

Roosevelt is a bit of an enigma. He greatly widened the power of the executive branch and government as a whole, but he cut the public tax burden by 90 million in 1909 dollars. In his mind the government needed to be powerful, which meant it needed to be lean. So he crusaded against government waste. He wasn’t so much for big government as strong government. Of course, the muscle turns to fat if succeeding presidents aren’t as diligent. He broke apart monopolies to enable stronger competition. This earned him the nickname “Trustbuster.” He also built up our military, especially our navy. While he expanded government powers, he spoke strongly and persuasively about the necessity for domestic self-reliance. He hated the condescending air that permeated much of the philanthropy of the time, and felt that self-respect was the greatest treasure one could have.

‘If a man will submit to being carried, that is sufficient to show that he is not worth carrying. In the long run, the only kind of help that really avails is the help which teaches a man to help himself. Such help every man who has been blessed in life should try to give to those who are less fortunate, and such help can be accepted with entire self-respect.”

While he campaigned against the over-concentration of industrialist power, he never attempted to inflame prejudices against the rich or stoke the fires of envy to garner votes.

“I ask that we scorn alike the base arrogance of the rich man who would look down on his poorer brother and the equally base envy of the poor man who would hate his richer brother; and that you apply to every citizen of this Republic just this one test–the test that gauges his worth as a man. Does he do his duty fairly by himself, his family, his neighbor, and the State and the Nation? If he does, be for him.”

“Of course, there is always a danger of abuse if legislation . . . is approached in a hysterical or sentimental spirit, or, above all, if it is approached in a spirit of envy and hatred toward men of wealth.”

Whatever you feel about his politics–maybe you don’t like them, and that’s fine, but you have to give the man points for heart.

On October, 14, 1912, Roosevelt campaigned in Milwaukee for his newly formed Bull Moose Party. He stopped at a Hotel for lunch, and planned to give a speech that afternoon at the Milwaukee Auditorium. John Shrank, a saloon keeper followed Roosevelt’s campaign across eight states. He intended to assassinate the former president, and for three weeks carried a .38 revolver on his person. When Roosevelt turned on the running board of his car to wave goodbye to the folks at the hotel, Shrank shot him in the chest. The bullet went through Roosevelt’s metal glasses case, and through his folded fifty page speech and lodged itself three inches in his chest. Shrank was immediately apprehended. Because he wasn’t coughing up blood, Roosevelt refused to go to a hospital, and insisted on keeping his appointment at the Milwaukee Theatre. As he bled into his shirt and jacket, Roosevelt took out his punctured speech. Before reading the scripted opening, he looked to the crowd and said, “I don’t know whether you fully understand that I have just been shot.” The crowd sat in amazement. Roosevelt then roared, “But it takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose!” He spoke for 80 minutes and finally let himself be taken to the hospital. Quite a guy.

I’d like to see a bit Theodore Roosevelt style leadership on display in the ‘08 race. It would require a man of action who aims to convince more than cajole, and who possesses more courage than charm. It’d be nice to get some of that Teddy Roosevelt spirit to infuse the proceedings in ‘08. Here’s hoping!

Side note: Maybe this is silly, but Matt was gracious to contribute to this post and did such a good job that I was curious to see what it would cost to print up Roosevelt ‘08 bumper stickers. They’re sort of reasonable if we had people that were interested. I know what you’re thinking. Teddy Roosevelt isn’t running for office in ‘08 because he’s dead. That’s a valid opinion, and I’m not knocking it, but if there’s any chance that someone would be interested in a Teddy Roosevelt ‘08 bumper sticker let me know somehow, and we’ll see if we can’t get them printed up and put in our store for cheap. I don’t know what you could use it for, maybe you could … put it … on your possessions? Maybe it could be a back-to-school bumper sticker? I’m definitely not saying that you could vandalize a rival school’s bus with them (but you could). Whatever, just send me a note if you think a Roosevelt ‘08 sticker might be cool.

2 Responses to “T.R. Post 4/5”

Anna Grace comments:

Friday, August 15th, 2008

Well, if Missouri’s Mel Carnahan could beat out John Ashcroft for election to the Senate in 2000 even AFTER he had died, I would think Teddy Roosevelt’s claim would be . . . “much more better.”

And I think the stickers would be awesome. Plus, they would look sweet on instrument cases.

Brade comments:

Wednesday, August 20th, 2008

This reminds of: http://www.joeydevilla.com/2006/08/28/vote-robot-nixon-updated/

I’d take a TR sticker only if Teddy’s name is on it. Don’t want to get him confused with that other guy….