They don't make Republicans like this any more
Theodore D. Roosevelt (October 27, 1858 – January 6, 1919) was the 26th President of the United States, and elected as a Republican.
Compare his legacy to some of those Republicans who followed him.
He fought to increase the regulatory power of the federal government. One of his first acts as President was to deliver a 20,000-word address to Congress on December 3, 1901, asking it to curb the power and abuses of the business community, and during his presidency he brought 44 lawsuits against major corporations. In addition to breaking up J.P. Morgan's Northern Securities Company (a railroad holding company) he used the powers of the federal government to dismantle J.D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil in to 30 separate competing companies.
The Hepburn Act gave the ICC the power to replace existing railroad rates with "just-and-reasonable" maximum rates, with the ICC to define what was just and reasonable and pushed Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
During the last 2 years in office, Roosevelt called on Congress to enact "the Square Deal" -- a series of laws that would regulate the economy. He pushed for a national incorporation law, a federal income tax and inheritance tax (both targeting the rich), limits on the use of court injunctions against labor unions during strikes (often used by businesses as a weapon against organized labor), an employee liability law for industrial injuries, an eight-hour law for federal employees, and a postal savings system to compete with banks.
While in office, Roosevelt established the United States Forest Service, signed into law the creation of five National Parks, and set aside more land for national parks and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined, 194 million acres.
Oh, and for all you Obama haters, he was sworn in without a Bible.
(Cribbed shamelessly from a post I made on the site of my respected debating partner, the Whited Sepulchre.)
Compare his legacy to some of those Republicans who followed him.
He fought to increase the regulatory power of the federal government. One of his first acts as President was to deliver a 20,000-word address to Congress on December 3, 1901, asking it to curb the power and abuses of the business community, and during his presidency he brought 44 lawsuits against major corporations. In addition to breaking up J.P. Morgan's Northern Securities Company (a railroad holding company) he used the powers of the federal government to dismantle J.D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil in to 30 separate competing companies.
The Hepburn Act gave the ICC the power to replace existing railroad rates with "just-and-reasonable" maximum rates, with the ICC to define what was just and reasonable and pushed Congress to pass the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.
During the last 2 years in office, Roosevelt called on Congress to enact "the Square Deal" -- a series of laws that would regulate the economy. He pushed for a national incorporation law, a federal income tax and inheritance tax (both targeting the rich), limits on the use of court injunctions against labor unions during strikes (often used by businesses as a weapon against organized labor), an employee liability law for industrial injuries, an eight-hour law for federal employees, and a postal savings system to compete with banks.
While in office, Roosevelt established the United States Forest Service, signed into law the creation of five National Parks, and set aside more land for national parks and nature preserves than all of his predecessors combined, 194 million acres.
Oh, and for all you Obama haters, he was sworn in without a Bible.
(Cribbed shamelessly from a post I made on the site of my respected debating partner, the Whited Sepulchre.)
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