Thursday, March 3, 2011

Dredging The NYeT Memory Hole: Teddy Roosevelt's "Super Socialism"

Power Line - Progressive Versus Progressive, Part 2: "Theodore Roosevelt has now thought out and matured his doctrine of Socialism. It is not the Marxian Socialism. . . Mr. Roosevelt achieves the redistribution of wealth in a simpler and easier way. He leaves the land, the mines, the factories, the railroads, the banks--all the instruments of production and exchange--in the hands of their individual owners, but of the profits of their operation he takes whatever share the people at any given time may choose to appropriate to the common use. The people are going to say, We care not who owns and milks the cow, so long as we get our fill of the milk and cream. Marx left Socialism in its infancy, a doctrine that stumbled and sprawled under the weight of its own inconsistencies. Mr. Roosevelt's doctrine is of no such complexity. It has all the simplicity of theft and much of its impudence.
At first glance, you might say, 'Well, the New York Times has certainly changed!' On the other hand, this much of the editorial could just was easily be written today about Obama, only with an approving tone."
All you can say is WOW, just WOW. That pretty much ends the argument about Teddy being a Republican in good standing. Of course, we already knew he was a eugenicist...