TR lives

Let's say that Teddy Roosevelt does not go to explore the River of Doubt and lives to be elected president in 1920. What is his adminstration Ike? Does he try to implant progressive reforms? Can he get a conservative congress to enact any reforms. What does he want to do about the league?
 
Let's say that Teddy Roosevelt does not go to explore the River of Doubt and lives to be elected president in 1920. What is his adminstration Ike? Does he try to implant progressive reforms? Can he get a conservative congress to enact any reforms. What does he want to do about the league?


He probably tries to get progressive measures through, but without a lot of success. In the early 1920s the Republican ascendancy is so total that the party regulars don't have to indulge him much. Think of it as a continuation of the final year of his OTL presidency, when not very much got done.

Post 1920 everyone is eager to get back to normal, and there simply isn't much popular demand for further reform. TR can scream and shout, but people aren't really listening the way they used to.
 
He probably tries to get progressive measures through, but without a lot of success. In the early 1920s the Republican ascendancy is so total that the party regulars don't have to indulge him much. Think of it as a continuation of the final year of his OTL presidency, when not very much got done.

Post 1920 everyone is eager to get back to normal, and there simply isn't much popular demand for further reform. TR can scream and shout, but people aren't really listening the way they used to.

I'm not sure. I can see your point and would agree that most presidents would be forced to champion "Normalcy" in some form. If anyone can break out of that though, it's TR.

I'm doing a TL on this at the moment actually-I don't think he'd be as progressive as he'd like to be, but I think he'd still be able to be a lot more progressive (both in domestic and foreign polecy) than Harding and Coolidge. This could help minimise the effects of the Great Depression.

I think TR joins the League (Lodge was a friend of his), plus he'd probably have an interventionist like Hughes as his sec state to help him along.

I wonder who he'd choose as his running mate? Harding might actually be a good choice for the seremonial VP slot-he balances the ticket ideologically in a lot of ways-and he's affable enough to jell with TR, despite their obvious disagreements.

Their are other candidates though-is Hoover a possibility? In my TL, Hoover succeeds Harding as VP in 1925.
 
He probably tries to get progressive measures through, but without a lot of success. In the early 1920s the Republican ascendancy is so total that the party regulars don't have to indulge him much. Think of it as a continuation of the final year of his OTL presidency, when not very much got done.

Post 1920 everyone is eager to get back to normal, and there simply isn't much popular demand for further reform. TR can scream and shout, but people aren't really listening the way they used to.

Maybe I'm wrong, but might the third Roosevelt term inspire one direct kind of constitutional reform? That is, term limits? Or would Theodore Roosevelt's political power be enough to either prevent such an amendment's passage in the House and Senate or prevent that amendment's ratification. After all, as you pointed out, his unsuccessful effort in 1912 was enough to inspire a nearly successful 6 year term amendment, so there does seem to be a possibility that you'd see term limits more than two decades before historical reality.

Also, this is probably an obvious question, but where did Theodore Roosevelt stand on prohibition?
 
While I can see TR winning the fall campaign vs. James Cox, provided his health is good throughout, I'm wondering how easily he would be able to secure the 1920 GOP nomination. The party's power brokers aren't just going to all bow at his feet and crown him the nominee, are they? Also, given that longevity does not run in TR's family, I'm wondering how long his health will hold out; through March 4, 1925 seems like a big stretch. At any rate, TR's 3rd term agenda would certainly be more progressive then Harding's was in OTL; I doubt however that his presidency would stave off the Great Depression.
 
Maybe I'm wrong, but might the third Roosevelt term inspire one direct kind of constitutional reform? That is, term limits? Or would Theodore Roosevelt's political power be enough to either prevent such an amendment's passage in the House and Senate or prevent that amendment's ratification. After all, as you pointed out, his unsuccessful effort in 1912 was enough to inspire a nearly successful 6 year term amendment, so there does seem to be a possibility that you'd see term limits more than two decades before historical reality.

Highly likely. Indeed, if the Depression still arrives "on schedule" and the Democrats sweep back in 1932 as OTL, I would consider it almost certain, though whether they go for the single six-year term or for two four-year ones is anybody's guess.

Also, this is probably an obvious question, but where did Theodore Roosevelt stand on prohibition?

A quick check of his letters sugests that he was non-committal as far as peacetime prohibition was concerned. During WW1 he strongly supported the prohibition of grains or other foodstuffs from being used to manufacture intoxicating liquor, and of its consumption by soldiers or workers in munitions and other war-related industries. In some letters he remarks that one of his sons has become "a permanent prohibitionist" as a result of experience in the Army, but doesn't say whether he himself shares that opinion.

However, it is all rather academic, inasmuch as Prohibition was already a virtual fait accompli even before TR died. The Eighteenth Amendment's 36th ratification (Nebraska) came in about a fortnight after his death, and since only two states, CT and RI, rejected it, ratification was plainly a foregone conclusion even if he had lived. The Volstead Act was also enacted the same month. So national Prohibition was already a done deal well before the 1920 elections.
 
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