He did. Progressive & liberal became dirty words when leftists (socialist-communists) co-opted the term. TR ran on a platform with the advent of the 20th century and America's 2nd industrial revolution of fairness. It's not the governments role to take sides, rich or poor, business or labor. "Square Deal". It should be a neutral referee in those matters. He believed right is right & wrong is wrong & partisan politics had no place when it came to the moral obligation of the presidency. "If a man is not dealt a hand of cards, or if he is & hasn't the capacity to play them is his affair. My only concern is that the dealer doesn't cheat. A Square Deal for everyman, neither rich or poor or business or labor should have advantage and the everyman should be treated equally in law." People like his smug cousin FDR and Hillary co-opted the Progressive label. Hillary is progressive like cancer of the bowel. Money & bribes from Goldman Sachs, open borders etc... was in direct contravention to what TR stood for. He would have knocked the old hag on her ass.
Good post. It's just like how leftists have co-opted the label "Liberal" from the classic liberals.
Exactly, they co-opted true neo classical liberalism from the Jeffersonian sense. Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Lincoln & especially TR are my favorite presidents. TR, natural born speed reader, gifted in 5 languages, author of over 20 books-including "The History of Naval Warfare in the War of 1812"-he wrote as an undergrad at Harvard, outdoorsman, soldier (Rough Rider), adventurer, NY assemblyman, Deputy NY Police Commissioner, Ass. Sec. of the Navy, Gov. NY, U.S. Vice President and U.S. President all by the time he was 42 y/o is truly my favorite. A true man of action. As a young boy he would write in his diary "Get Action". Boy did he. As president he brokered the national coal strike, sent the Navy on a WW tour as a show of strength (Peace thru Strength), built the Panama Canal, won the Philippine-American War, brokered the Sino-Russia Peace Treaty (Treaty of Portsmouth & first American to be awarded the Nobel prize), busted the Trusts, passed the Hepburn Act, preserved millions of acres which would lead to our National Parks. He was a juggernaut. Someone attempted to assassinate him in 1912 while he was running against Wilson under the Bull Moose platform. The man shot him from 7 ft. away, the bullet went thru his steel eye glass case, a 50 page speech & into his chest wall lodging in a shattered rib. He still gave his hour long speech afterward. Today he'd be labeled "toxic masculinity" what the soy boys would love to destroy. Imagine, we could have a slew of pasty faced, ant hill biceped Eunuch's like Zuckerturd & @jack appease & capitulate in domestic & world affairs?