Comments on: Whatever Happened To Roosevelt Republicans?

By: David Lindsay

David Lindsay — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:45:17 +0000

“we seem all to willing to do the bidding of corporations who may not be looking out for our best interests, whether those interests be at the individual or national level.”

The health insurance companies.

By: Jack

Jack — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:57:39 +0000

Considering that free-market monopoly is basically an oxymoron – and if it ever happened – it would simply be the manifestation of consumer preferences – Roosevelt was basically just grandstanding.

By: Michael Hardesty

Michael Hardesty — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 18:12:08 +0000

Bully Boy by Jim Powell on TR, he also wrote FDR’ s Folly.
Then see the hagiographic Roosevelt and Hopkins by Robert E. Sherwood, page 41-42 (hardback ed) where he quotes
from a TR speech that is more openly statist-collectivist
than anything FDR said (to my knowledge.)

By: eep

eep — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:28:50 +0000

Libertarians credit the Progressive Era for corporatism, the imperial presidency, a shift away from federalism, and the warfare-welfare state:
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/rothbard_on_war.html

By: Robert

Robert — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:58:24 +0000

Don’t you know that most modern conservatives/libertarians think that old TR was a closet commie?

I mean Lew Rockwell contends that TR’s efforts to establish the national parks and forests was a conspiratorial plot designed to increase the value of John Rockefeller’s real estate holdings and prevent poorer Americans from buying land. I guess this example doesn’t exactly parse with my earlier point about TR being a commie, but it nonetheless demonstrates my point that TR’s moderate sensibilities have fallen out of favor with the modern right.

Apparently in America criticizing corporations and/or their business practices now amounts to heresy. I suppose this mindset is due to the fact that we have become ever more dependent on large corporations for our livelihoods. Still, for a society that claims to be based on individual liberty and subservience to no one, we seem all to willing to do the bidding of corporations who may not be looking out for our best interests, whether those interests be at the individual or national level.