Would Theodore Roosevelt have become a Democrat at some point?
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  Would Theodore Roosevelt have become a Democrat at some point?
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Author Topic: Would Theodore Roosevelt have become a Democrat at some point?  (Read 1339 times)
President Johnson
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« on: January 07, 2023, 03:28:30 PM »

Especially if he lived to the New Deal era and witness the presidency of Franklin. Do you think it's possible he becomes a Democrat within a realistic lifespan? It's really incredible that he could have lived through World War II and beyond while he indeed died not even a full ten years after he left office.
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« Reply #1 on: January 07, 2023, 04:33:54 PM »

Assuming he never runs again, he likely supports Harding in 1920 but La Follete in 1924 and then reluctantly backs Hoover in 1928.

After that its possible he becomes a Democrat in 1932 but its possible he doesnt given how his side of the family hated FDR.
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the artist formerly known as catmusic
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« Reply #2 on: January 07, 2023, 09:26:48 PM »

I believe he would have. Or at the very least he would have been in support of the New Deal policies. Certainly in modern standards he would've been closer to the Democratic Party - though he was a fascinating political case.
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TDAS04
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« Reply #3 on: January 07, 2023, 09:29:11 PM »

Maybe by the time of the New Deal, idk.  I doubt he would have supported La Follette, though.  IIRC, Teddy hated Fighting Bob.
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Vice President Christian Man
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« Reply #4 on: January 07, 2023, 09:31:49 PM »

I think he'd at least by sympathetic to the New Deal, after all it was modelled after his Square Deal, but whether he'd vote for FDR would depend on familiar tensions. He likely supports Eisenhower and Nixon and then after that it gets fuzzy. He'd probably support Perot but other than that I can see a case either way starting during the 1980's. I think he'd oppose both parties had he been alive. He wouldn't recognize the modern GOP and he'd be a "RINO", while he'd dislike the Dems for his own reasons and would be hated by them too.
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Mr. Smith
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« Reply #5 on: January 07, 2023, 09:56:52 PM »

Unlikely.

I could see him supporting FDR in 1940 and 1944, and Truman...if someone besides Dewey wins 1948 nomination.

His last vote in ttl is Ike for sure.
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Southern Senator North Carolina Yankee
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« Reply #6 on: January 07, 2023, 11:53:52 PM »

If you were to look at issues like say foreign policy or influence of big money in politics, the closest parallel would be McCain.

Both had expansive views of the nation's role in the world.
Both opposed the influence of special interests favored by the old guard/establishment
Both tended to favor regulation at the expense of the leading industries in the party at the time (rail+steel+oil/energy+climate).

TR might have actually been more inclined to stick with the GOP because of foreign policy as the events of the 20th century progressed, especially during the Keynesian consensus period.

Its not only about what issues he took and would take, but their relative importance in a given time period.
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Skill and Chance
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« Reply #7 on: January 08, 2023, 11:41:05 AM »
« Edited: January 08, 2023, 03:59:33 PM by Skill and Chance »

I can see him going Dem in some elections that 1. aren't close and 2. are primarily about economic/regulatory policy (1932/36, plus 1964 and 2008 if he lived unnaturally long), but I doubt he ever leaves the party, even to the present day.  Teddy would almost surely find Trump more politically attractive than a generic 20th century R president, not less.  Modern Dems would also have virtually nothing to offer him on social issues.  He was also preoccupied with declining birthrates and strongly opposed liberalization of birth control.  He would almost surely have been pro-life had he lived to see Roe v. Wade.
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Dr. Cynic
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« Reply #8 on: February 05, 2023, 11:20:53 PM »

I think he'd at least by sympathetic to the New Deal, after all it was modelled after his Square Deal, but whether he'd vote for FDR would depend on familiar tensions.

There weren't any between Franklin and TR. TR ADORED him and said to him once that if he could have had one wish it's that "you would've been a Republican".
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AtorBoltox
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« Reply #9 on: February 07, 2023, 01:49:37 PM »
« Edited: March 22, 2023, 08:36:44 PM by AtorBoltox »

He certainly would have supported Franklin's foreign policy in the 30s and the lead up to 1941
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RINO Tom
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« Reply #10 on: March 22, 2023, 01:06:54 PM »

He certainly would have supported Franklin's foreign policy in the 20s and the lead up to 1941

I agree, but it's hard to speculate about what types of politicians switch parties in these situations and what types of politicians sort of "make a name for themselves" by leading some defiant wing within their party.  For example, if all Teddy cared about were his disagreements with Taft in 1912, he would have supported Wilson ... no question about it.  But he didn't.
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I Will Not Be Wrong
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« Reply #11 on: March 22, 2023, 07:08:51 PM »

Either a McCain or Lieberman type most likely.
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The Mikado
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« Reply #12 on: March 22, 2023, 08:59:39 PM »

Let's say TR lived to 80 (Died in 1938).

I think he'd spend half his time ranting that cousin Franklin stopped the occupation of Haiti in 1934 and that his "Good Neighbor Policy" was wrongheadedly ending rightful American domination of the Western Hemisphere, and would be warning that if the US didn't put some stick about in Latin America to keep it onside, it'd end up in the camp of the Germans or the Japanese or the Russians instead.

"...And why doesn't Franklin do something about China! My friend Henry...that's Henry Luce, founder of Time Magazine...keeps showing me these photographs of Nanking...do you know what's happening there? We need to help Chiang against these Japanese devils or it'll be our Philippine Islands next, mark my words. Franklin is too comfortable talking things over with the Japanese. Mark my words, they're a menace and if we don't act now we'll have to act later at greater cost when a Nipponese battleship enters San Francisco Bay."
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« Reply #13 on: March 22, 2023, 09:07:01 PM »

I think he'd at least by sympathetic to the New Deal, after all it was modelled after his Square Deal, but whether he'd vote for FDR would depend on familiar tensions.

There weren't any between Franklin and TR. TR ADORED him and said to him once that if he could have had one wish it's that "you would've been a Republican".

Yeah, the one who hated FDR was TR's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who was a fascinating and idiosyncratic woman not all of whose views reflected her father's.
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President Punxsutawney Phil
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« Reply #14 on: March 22, 2023, 09:13:49 PM »

I think he'd at least by sympathetic to the New Deal, after all it was modelled after his Square Deal, but whether he'd vote for FDR would depend on familiar tensions.

There weren't any between Franklin and TR. TR ADORED him and said to him once that if he could have had one wish it's that "you would've been a Republican".

Yeah, the one who hated FDR was TR's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who was a fascinating and idiosyncratic woman not all of whose views reflected her father's.
Please expound on this in as much detail as you can do.
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Statilius the Epicurean
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« Reply #15 on: March 22, 2023, 09:15:38 PM »
« Edited: March 22, 2023, 09:38:27 PM by Statilius the Epicurean »

In 1918 Teddy Roosevelt was red-baiting Woodrow Wilson as a crypto-communist. The chances that he'd ever join the Democrats are zero.

Alf Landon was a Teddy Roosevelt progressive Republican. Just because you were progressive in 1912 didn't mean you supported FDR or the New Deal.

Although I don't know who he voted for in 1912 (Landon voted for TR), another progressive Republican was...Herbert Hoover. Edit: the biography I'm reading said Hoover donated to the Bull Moose party in 1912.
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All Along The Watchtower
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« Reply #16 on: March 22, 2023, 10:46:00 PM »

I think he'd at least by sympathetic to the New Deal, after all it was modelled after his Square Deal, but whether he'd vote for FDR would depend on familiar tensions.

There weren't any between Franklin and TR. TR ADORED him and said to him once that if he could have had one wish it's that "you would've been a Republican".

Yeah, the one who hated FDR was TR's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who was a fascinating and idiosyncratic woman not all of whose views reflected her father's.

Don’t forget his ultra-right-wing son Archibald.
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All Along The Watchtower
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« Reply #17 on: March 22, 2023, 10:57:35 PM »

Anyway, I don’t think TR would have had much of a problem with any subsequent Republican presidential nominee tbh—other than, of course, the major issue that they were not him.

To paraphrase another Republican President from New York who didn’t believe in term limits and who certainly used the “bully pulpit”, if in the crassest and most obnoxious schoolyard sense of the first word in that term, TR tended to believed that he alone could fix things. In this, he was much like four-term-holding fifth cousin.
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« Reply #18 on: March 23, 2023, 10:08:32 AM »
« Edited: March 23, 2023, 10:16:00 AM by Cath »

I think he'd at least by sympathetic to the New Deal, after all it was modelled after his Square Deal, but whether he'd vote for FDR would depend on familiar tensions.

There weren't any between Franklin and TR. TR ADORED him and said to him once that if he could have had one wish it's that "you would've been a Republican".

Yeah, the one who hated FDR was TR's daughter, Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who was a fascinating and idiosyncratic woman not all of whose views reflected her father's.

Don’t forget his ultra-right-wing son Archibald.

Didn't Teddy Jr. want to quit his ambassadorship or whatever specifically to return to the US and campaign against Franklin? (EDIT: I reread his Wikipedia page--it was while Governor of the Philippines; for the record, TR Jr.'s previous service as Governor of Puerto Rico, and his subsequent role as a general in WWII seem to indicate some very admirable traits)
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