The Avenger
Banned
Everyone has to be his or her own man/woman, correct?
Anyway, if so, Taft should've told TR before 1908 that he won't run the country in the same way that TR would. Then TR could've picked a different successor.
Without World War I could Wilson have won a third term?
- Thread starter thatsbunkers
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Anyway, if so, Taft should've told TR before 1908 that he won't run the country in the same way that TR would. Then TR could've picked a different successor.
The United States is a republic. Presidents don't choose their successors, and even if they did, differences among longtime allies are inevitable.
The Avenger
Banned
It was TR's influence within the GOP that allowed Taft to win the 1908 GOP nomination, though.
SsgtC
Banned
Partly. And some of it had to do with Taft feeling that the country wasn't ready for some of Roosevelt's more extreme policies
Well, he still stayed [mostly] quiet about racism, but that was only after he got burned by Southern protests at greeting a black man in the White House. He also detested lynching (it was horrifically common at the time), calling it barbarism, but there wasn't much he could do about it.
Overall, while he still had the preconceptions and biases of most the people of the time, he was still an ardent reformer and populist.
Not if he didn't want to die on that hill that is, he'd be vindicated sure, but tackling the Southern beast is a dance with a lot of twisting steps. I can't personally blame him, but it's still a shame. The only president around the turn of the century with the standing and force of personality to introduce the issue into the national politic and he gets gun-shy. Damn shame.
The people of United States have a lot of awful habits, but the forgetfulness has to be at the top. Most of the policy goals we associate with the left (economically speaking) are old dirt, just dust off the paper and it'll slide right into your favorite party's platform. WE have not covered anywhere near the amount of ground we think we have, our progress is and has been for most of our modern history very much stunted.
That goes back to the Teddy not taking a stronger stance thing. How much we take for granted that things like Jim Crow and the Old South and the general American treatment of black people were just a given that you have to wait for two World Wars and some opportunistic politicking to rectify. Nothing's ever been set in stone, it just so happens we tend to think we've done our best when it's the only outcomes we know. In hindsight, it seems like we've wasted a lot of time on most everything good.
Maybe, maybe not. He was not fan of what we might call multiculturalism.
SsgtC
Banned
It's complicated. Teddy believed strongly in the opening lines of the Declaration of Independence that "All Men are Created Equal." But at the same time, he was a White Supremacist who believed that the White race had advanced further than the other races. He also believed it was the White race's duty to help the other races advance as well. It sounds odd to say, but he was a White Supremacist without being a racist.
As far multiculturalism, he believed strongly that if you immigrated to the United States, you should be welcomed with open arms. Provided you adopted American customs and became an American in all aspects of your life. He didn't think you should forget were you came from or abandon the traditions of your birthplace, but he did feel that they should take second place to those of America.
Nothing moves until people have a strong reason for needing it to move. Rarely if ever is anything done just because it's "the right thing to do". When a politician advocates something on that ground alone, you know he has run out of convincing arguments.
You're making a distinction without a difference. It's racism, but perhaps less violent.
Melting into one, being an American over a German or a Vietnamese, is arguably not multiculturalism.
SsgtC
Banned
Yes and no. Because he didn't discriminate against others based on their race or hate those of another skin color. He also personally didn't believe in segregation. While he did believe that the white race was superior to other races, he didn't believe it was "because we're white." He also thought that the other races could advance to the same level as the white race, and that individual members of those races already had. So like I said, it was still white supremacism, but without the racism. Or maybe it would be better to say, it wouldn't have been considered racism at the time.
Never said it wasn't. He was very much America First. But unlike a lot of politicians today, he wasn't anti-imigration. He just believed that if you chose to immigrate to the United States, then you should be expected to become American. And that if you did, you should be treated no differently than any other American.
First I do think Wilson would run for a third-term despite the tradition not to. He opposed the proposed Amendment to reduce the term to six-years and his thoughts on it show me that he believed a President needs both the threat and promise of re-election to sustain both his policy and administration. We can assume a lot about what is going on in the background with the USA not at war or no war at all. But so long as Wilson is healthy enough to run I think he would so long as he felt he had work unfinished.
I just can't see Wilson breaking Washington precedent without hellish good reason. And even if he decide run third term, it would be pretty much of uphill fighting. Firstly him should assure other Democrats why him should run third term instead someone else Democrat. And even if the party agrees, he would face much accusation and tainting campaign being disrespectful towards Washington and they might even blame him being powerhungry despot, perhaps comparing him to Julius Caesar.