Teddy Roosevelt Was Snubbed By His Rich Harvard Classmates For Being Anti-Wall Street

[Ichingcarpenter]

Former President Teddy Roosevelt returned to Harvard for his 30th reunion and graduation in 1910– and as he entered the proceedings all his classmates including fellow Porcellian Club members turned their backs on him in unison. TR’s latest biographer Edmund Morris believes this shocking snub in public of a former President was due to TR’s strong belief in regulating Wall Street, breaking up monopolies and not allowing a few wealthy men run the nation.

Think of that extraordinary event; some 22 years before TR’s 5th cousin Franklin Delano Roosevelt was called “a traitor to his class” Teddy was getting the same treatment. Barack Obama should take heart from those historical experiences. The Gilded Age was followed by the Progressive Era of tough laws and court actions against Robber Barons who controlled state legislatures and Congress with their anti-trust legislation.

Then came the Roaring Twenties and the Crash, followed by the Great Depression– and then the New Deal– which created the blessed Glass-Steagall Act– which separated investment banking from commercial banking, plus the WPA and other make work programs that gave the unemployed a reason for living and put food in their mouths. Some 20 years later the stock market reached its old pre-crash peak and the economy powered by pent up consumer purchases, roared ahead.

It could be said- I’ll say it– that both Roosevelts saved capitalism from its unfair excesses and stabilized the financial industry to help finance American industry. And that’s what George Bush did in 2008, followed by Barack Obama in 2009. Yes, once again, the wealthy loathe a liberal President– and their most radical members want to cut social programs to the retired and the middle class, while holdng onto all their gains, even in death if the estate tax is deep sixed. (It had better not be)


More http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2011/10/29/teddy-roosevelt-was-snubbed-by-his-rich-harvard-classmates-for-being-anti-wall-street/

[MannyGoldstein]

1. We need to find another Roosevelt - and quick! nt

[Rabblevox]

2. It's reasons like this that I really dislike the "We are the 99%" meme....

edited for sppeling

Not all of the 1% are the enemies. Both Roosevelts, John, Bobby and Ted Kennedy, a HUGE number of artists, writers, musicians...

All definite 1%'ers that I would call allies.

Conversely, no way in hell are many of the 99% EVER going to be anything but willing tools for TPTB.


And NOOO, I am NOT trying to divide and conquer, just stating the obvious, 99% is misleading, inaccurate, and just plain sloppy.

If I wasn't so firmly anti-gun I'd cap the sucker.

[mmonk]

3. Not if you understand what it means.

The 99% just means those who are not in the top 1%. It doesn't mean that someone in the 1% and someone in the 99% must disagree about something.

[hobbit709]

4. One thing Teddy didn't do was back down without a fight.

[izquierdista]

5. Obama speaks loftily....

...and carries a popsicle stick.

[Ikonoklast]

6. One thing Teddy didn't do was back down from anyone, ever.

Fixed it for you.