Herbert Croly, Eugene V. Debs, Theodore Roosevelt And Woodrow Wilson

Since the founding of the United States of America, many presidents have worked tirelessly in their posts to change our country for the better. Some have seen abounding success, while others have met a slow decline from glory.  Of all of these generally noble and brave men, one especially has stood out; Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a remarkable idealist of a man and an amazing vehicle for change in America. While in office, this dignified man demonstrated many positive qualities, such as unrelenting optimism, heartfelt concern for both the populace and the land of America, and fierce determination to accomplish his goals.

The Great Depression caused hard times throughout The United States. With the Presidential Election of 1932 approaching, Governor Roosevelt took a stand for the people and the economy. He believed that the government should protect its citizens from the economic hardships rather than wait for the economy to fix itself. On March 4th of 1933, Theodore Roosevelt became President Theodore Roosevelt and he launched the New Deal. With his New Deal enacted, he had three objectives, also known as the 3 R’s. He wanted to provide aid to the people, especially those unemployed (relief) and he wanted to help the farms and business get back on their feet to where they would be able to stand on their own (recovery). Lastly, he wanted to (reform) the government

According to Jost (2012), the nation has contradicting views on political issues which divide where we think the appropriate role of the government lies (p. 743). American politics is complex and reflects a partisan system, making it challenging for governmental officials to decide on whether or not to re-examine the constitution. Another crucial point when analyzing this issue, is a person’s positionality in the American society determines their view on the

Progress is not something that comes very quickly. It is a gradual process that takes time, in the interest of our country and the Progressive Era, more than a decade. The presidents of this time, Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, were like chefs developing a recipe for the betterment of the United States. Every act that was passed, each decision that was made, was a trial or taste-test of the constantly changing recipe for the country. If something angered citizens or drew criticism, the president went back to his office, his kitchen, and was ready to make more changes. Where he left off in the progressive recipe, the next chef took over. He would analyze what had been done, identified his plan of action, and then set to work by either making

Wilson's number one desire was to be loved by the people. He could not win as much respect as Roosevelt won, but did find some affection in politics. He had many limitations, but one of the most severe was his respect for tradition. Wilson, instead of trying to make the government better and newer, he wanted to imitate the government of Great Britain, with cabinet being more like parliament. One of his main criticisms was that the current government had no room for debate, or great minds like Calhoun, Webster, and Clay. Wilson was much more sincere then Roosevelt, and actually provided a display of the reforms he wanted to achieve. Prior to his career in politics, Wilson served as the president of Princeton University. He therefore had much sympathy to the way education was run throughout the country, and wanted reforms to occur. He felt students were not allowed to express their opinion freely enough, and called for a more democratic undergraduate life. Similarly to Roosevelt, Wilson was hostile to labor unions, suspicious of large trusts, and unaware of how to handle trusts. The "Triple Wall of Privileges" was Wilson's economic policy which required getting rid of the three obstacles he felt society was currently facing- the trusts, banks, and tariffs. And before Wilson left the White House, he made sure he handled every single part of the "Triple Wall of Privileges."

When Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected to his first term as president of the United States in 1932, America was in a severe depression. When Franklin Roosevelt took office in March of 1933, President Hoover handed the problems of the Great Depression over to Roosevelt. Upon taking office, Franklin Roosevelt issued a bank holiday which forced all banks to close from March 6 to March 10 while he met with Congress to pass the Emergency Banking Act to allow banks with enough money to reopen and for the Federal Government to help the banks that did not have enough money (A Bank). This act was a prerequisite to many other programs that would develop under Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration. Under

When President Hoover entered office in 1929, stock market prices were at all time highs and the American economy prospered. Suddenly, in October of 1929, the stock market crashed and thousands of Americans lost their entire life savings. The crash sparked the most horrific and devastating economic crisis of all time. In the tedious years to follow, records suggest that stock prices fell “about 80% from their highs in the late 1920s” (Stock Market Crash). Soon after Black Tuesday, the United States economy crumbled to pieces. Many people became unemployed and homeless. Through the course of a decade, Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt tried and failed to bring an end to the Great Depression with their own domestic policies and political ideals. Before Hoover’s election, federal administrators praised his humanitarian spirit. When Hoover became president, he fell short of his glowing reputation and failed to recognize the severity of the situation America was facing. The nation felt out of touch with their commander-in-chief and in the presidential election of 1932, Hoover was squarely defeated by his popular Democratic opponent, Franklin Delano Roosevelt who promised a “New Deal” to the suffering American people. The Great Depression was a long and difficult time for many Americans ended only by the beginning of World War II. Two utterly different presidents guided America through the worst financial crisis ever seen with two different policies, two

In 1912, the Progressive Party formed to support Theodore Roosevelt in his attempt to be elected for a third presidential term (O 'Toole par. 7, 11). The party was formed after the Republican National Convention repudiated the nomination of Roosevelt (Bardes, Shelley, and Schmidt 251). Furthermore, this resulted in Roosevelt splitting the Republican vote between him and William Howard Taft and gave Democrat Woodrow Wilson an advantage (Bardes, Shelley, and Schmidt). The Progressive Party took a platform that was new and innovative for the time period in which it began. To understand the the start of the Progressive Party one must acknowledge its political platform, the outcome of the presidential election between Roosevelt, Taft, and Wilson, and the outcome and end of the Progressive Party.

Not long after the ratification of the U.S. Constitution, the American citizens began to disagree about how the United States should operate. They were conflicted about how much power the federal government should possess, as stated in Chapter 10 of History in the Making, which says that “at heart, Federalists and Republicans disagreed about how much power to vest in the central government or, conversely, about how capable the people were in governing themselves” (Locks). Additionally, the citizens had differing opinions about who should be allowed to hold political power, whether manufacturing and trade or farming should be the central source of revenue, and how strictly the Constitution should be interpreted. These disputes led to the formation

For the most part they were the same. Both thought that reform was necessary, but the way that they went about it was different. For example, Wilson ratified the eighteenth amendment, which was the prohibition, outlawing liquor from being manufactured, sold, or transported. Roosevelt never would have approved it; he did try to outlaw football because of the injury that it caused. Instead of being outlawed, he compromised on structured rules. Both men were concerned with child labor. Both men organized investigations into child labor and later formed the federal children’s bureau, let by Roosevelt, and the Keating-Owen child labor act, outlawing the shipment of goods made by child labor, put in place by Wilson. Wilson wanted to lower tariffs, oppose business consolidation, and urge the government to break up giant corporations. On the other hand, Roosevelt believed in higher taxes, consider business consolidation acceptable, urging giant corporations to be permitted, but only with government regulations.

During the Progressive Era from 1890-1920, America saw three new presidents: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson. This period of time is known as the Progressive Era due to the political and social changes made to move away from a laissez-faire government to a more active government by the administrations of these presidents. Prior to this period, Americans had to suffer through poor working conditions, low wages, social and class inequality and become victims to large corporations that took advantage of the people. In particular, the administrations of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson established the key principles and ideas of economic reform and social reform, which would end up returning the power from the manipulative corporations back to the government, establishing a model for a more active role for the federal government, and improve the lives of Americans. However, even though Roosevelt and Wilson had similar intentions of reforming America, they both had different means of achieving it.

There is a major divide between two political parties, that has shaped the modern government today. One fights for a strong central government while the other wants a small central government and strong military. These two differences in ideals have always been a powerful movement throughout the American history. Even as the Constitution was ratified on the 21st of June in 1788, federalists, and antifederalists fought against the opponent’s ideals. One side wanted the new country to have a strong centralized government (federalists), and the other side (antifederalists) believed in a smaller central government, and state sovereignty. Many states didn’t ratify the Constitution unless a “Bill of Rights” was added guaranteeing unalienable rights the new federal government cannot take away.

“It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed.” ("TheodoreRoosevelt."BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2014. 17 November2014.http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/t/theodorero103482.html ) The reason why this quote relates to what he did is he did not stop and quit , although the catastrophes . He still managed to keep going and it is saying that its easier to at least try in success .Although life was tuff he went very far in the political life and down in history. So the point is to never give up no matter what. Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. was an important figure in American history because he was the youngest President in the history of the U.S. , he was a strong leader in the congress. He also won a Nobel Peace Prize for drafting an agreement in the Russo-Japanese War.

We live in this country for the land, and the for the free as Americans we rely on many attributes in this world in order for us to live our lives. Our government has supplied us with many great things for us to be proud of. Our government is “the institutions and processes though which public policies are made for society.” (Edwards, Wattenberg, and Lineberry, p. 7). With all these institutions which includes the President, Congress, the courts and all the federal administrative agencies. These are the institutions that make up public policies for us, and to shape the way we live as Americans. The way this system has been operating through all the years has been

All of this diving further into depth provided a new insight; that our government is not, by any means, simple. Our--the nation’s--purpose is clear; what it means to be an American is rather straightforward, regardless of what the world views us as. However, to become and accomplish what we want to, that is where the complications are. It is easy to say that we elect officials by casting a vote. What is not easy is explaining why someone was elected. As illustrated in the website, as a metaphor, there is