Theodore Roosevelt's Relationship With Franklin D. Roosevelt

The main themes that I observed in this week’s materials were: Progressivism, political and social change, and a more executive focused government. In this time period, the United States underwent quite a few changes. Following President McKinley’s assassination in September of 1901, then Vice President Theodore Roosevelt became the 26th President and ushered in the Progressive era (Milkis and Nelson 229). Roosevelt was the first president to enter office with an agenda. He encouraged leadership that increased the reach of presidential influence and practiced as such (Milkis and Nelson 228). After a four-year hiatus between 1908 and 1912, Roosevelt decided to run for another term resulting in the presidential primaries and the first time one party held a majority in both the House and Senate in over fifty years (Milkis and Nelson 251). President Roosevelt’s coming into office created a good deal of anxiety for conservative leaders. Known for his progressive ideals, Roosevelt seemed to clash with his own party’s “patronage practices and pro-business policies” (Milkis and Nelson 229). However, like most progressives, Roosevelt had no quarrels with businesses or party interests. Quite the opposite, Roosevelt embraced industrialization, he simply advocated for government regulation (Milkis and Nelson) (Milkis and Nelson 229). In addition, Roosevelt extended the executive power to its Constitutional limit. He asserted that traditional presidential restrictions exposed U.S. politics to corruption. As “a steward of the people” he viewed it was his job, to the best of his abilities, to ensure the nation’s social and economic welfare and protect the people (Milkis and Nelson 230). Although Roosevelt was not the first president to expand the executive powers, he was the first to broaden authority during a time of peace with no intent of curbing them. Embracing the Progressive movement to its fullest, Roosevelt sought to establish the president as a representative of social and economic reform (Milkis and Nelson 230-231). The election of 1912 ushered in new changes as well. Due to discord with President William Howard Taft, members of the Republican party turned to former President Theodore Roosevelt to run for the Republican nomination. This move led to the first presidential primaries with Taft, Roosevelt and Robert La Follette all gunning for the Republican ticket. Although …show more content…
Roosevelt. In a small excerpt, it was mentioned that they were “distant cousins”, which makes sense, but had never occurred to me (Milkis and Nelson 229). Curiosity led me into part of next week’s reading on FDR where I found that FDR’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, was also FDR’s distant cousin (Brinkley and Dyer 345). Of course, this then led me completely off topic and down the rabbit hole of the internet, where I learned that, as suspected, Theodore Roosevelt and Eleanor Roosevelt were distant cousins as well. While it’s not really on topic, it was what surprised me the …show more content…
As mentioned earlier, Theodore Roosevelt created a more executive centered government comparable to today’s presidency. He also introduced the idea of a government not just interested in but involved in social and economic issues (Milkis and Nelson 229-231). Woodrow Wilson introduced the president as being a “strong party leader” in order to break the barriers between the President and Congress, again something that can still be seen today. Without the Progressive Movement, the presidency that we know today could be very