Roosevelt: Not the best Republican model?

A video clip recently featured on Illinois Review extolling Teddy Roosevelt as a "progressive conservative" has stirred some offline discussion about whether Republicans should be so proud of TR and his political ideology after all.  Indeed, Roosevelt is criticized in Jonah Goldberg's new book "Liberal Fascism" as a fascist.  Goldberg's conclusions were highlighted on the American Vision blog, where Gary DeMar writes:

Jonah Goldberg’s Liberal Fascism is an eye-opener. We’ve been taught that fascism is a foreign-born ideology that spawned the political aspirations of Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. In reality, fascism has had a long history in America. The political philosophies of Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson are textbook examples of fascism. Do you find this hard to take? Here’s what Goldberg says on the subject:

Wilson revered [Otto von] Bismarck as much as Teddy Roosevelt or any of the other progressives did. . . . Bismarck’s motive was to forestall demands for more democracy by giving people the sort of thing they might ask for at the polls. His top-down socialism was a Machiavellian masterstroke because it made the middle class dependent upon the state. The middle class took away from this the lesson that enlightened government was not the product of democracy but an alternative. . . . As Wilson put it, the essence of progressivism was that the individual “marry his interests to the state.”1

The type of fascism that was being promoted by these early American “Progressives” is what we might call today “smiley-face-fascism” in that there are no jack-booted troops marching through the streets or calls for the suspension of habeas corpus. Bismarck’s social policies are very much like our own and those of anther fascist.

So, should TR be listed as a model Republican?

Comments

[rockdalian]

From dictionary.com:
Word History: It is fitting that the name of an authoritarian political movement like Fascism, founded in 1919 by Benito Mussolini, should come from the name of a symbol of authority. The Italian name of the movement, fascismo, is derived from fascio, "bundle, (political) group," but also refers to the movement's emblem, the fasces, a bundle of rods bound around a projecting axe-head that was carried before an ancient Roman magistrate by an attendant as a symbol of authority and power. The name of Mussolini's group of revolutionaries was soon used for similar nationalistic movements in other countries that sought to gain power through violence and ruthlessness, such as National Socialism.
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?r=1&q=fascism
From whitehouse.gov:
Theodore Roosevelt
Twenty-Sixth President
1901-1909
http://www.whitehouse.gov/history/presidents/tr26.html

It seems that the label is applied retroactively.
Reading through the links, I see no specifics listed. Exactly what actions did he alone do that were fascist?
What legislation was passed through Congress that he signed?
Fascism as defined:
A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism.
Without specifics, how does one counter the fascism label?
If Roosevelt signed legislation passed by Congress, that hardly makes a dictator of him.
Without any specific actions defined, it is difficult to argue either side.

[Mr. Telly]

So let's write a book about it!

[Will from NYC]

"A system of government marked by centralization of authority under a dictator, stringent socioeconomic controls, suppression of the opposition through terror and censorship, and typically a policy of belligerent nationalism and racism."

So tell me with all of Bush's executive orders, his overriding/ignoring congress, the use of wedge issues, the use of the press to squash opposition to the Iraq war early on, the fact our press is not allowed to photograph coffins coming back from Iraq ands Afghanistan...

THIS IS PRESIDENT BUSH AND HIS ADMINISTRATION TO A TEE.

[Will from NYC]

My grandma had a good saying

"Nobody sees their own hunch back" .. this is the GOP today.

[Pete Speer]

Will,

Bless your grandma but she did not teach you how to spell "hunchback."

[Ken Vanko]

TR remains the gold standard.

TR left the GOP in 1912 to found the Bull Moose Party, which split the vote and ensured defeat of the Republican candidate. Should a party switcher be a party icon?

[Bruno Behrend]

Will,

While you occasionally give good advice here (we learn more from our enemies than from our friends), your equating Bush with a fascist is the kind of drivel that allows many of us to ignore you as a complete knee-biter.

Bush has had virtually the entire Hollywood elite practically call for his assassination (along with making a movie or 2 out of such an event).

He has been vilified by entire swaths of the population suffering from BDS (Bush derangement syndrome), which made the embarrassing CDS (the Clinton variety) look downright tame.

All this points to the utter silliness of your comment. If he were half the fascist you lefty loons thought he was, he'd have hauled all of you off to black helicopter land long ago, with about 47% of the nation cheering him on.

Now really!

As for the general trend of the USA, it's drift toward a 'fascism lite' (1/3 less brutal than normal fascism, with 1/4 the casualties) coincides with an increasingly powerful central government and increasingly dumbed-down (i.e. publicly edu-ma-cated) population.

This trend has proceeded under Presidents of both parties, as each uses the apparatus to lock down their locus of control.

I don't know if you are big Obama fan or not, but I believe he is on record asking for a "civilian security force."

___

"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
___

This notion, viewed in its most benign light, is fascism-lite. Viewed in the worst light, it is approaching Hugo Chavez land - where brown-shirts beat people who challenge the "dear leader."

If you are serious about combating "fascism" in all its varieties, I would hope that you would find common cause with us conservatives, who have a pretty good track record standing up for liberals rights to speak freely.

[Will from NYC]

The things I listed in my original post and a few more why people wanted Bush served BBQ'ed and impeached:

all of Bush's executive orders, his overriding/ignoring congress, the use of wedge issues, the use of the press to squash opposition to the Iraq war early on, the fact our press is not allowed to photograph coffins coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan is still ongoing, the lying to get us into the war... the destruction of our Justice Department, the destruction of the FDA, FEMA, the wire tapping, Chinese Imports, the re-emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the proliferation of Nuclear Arms to BOTH India and Pakistan.... North Korean and Iran developing Nuclear technology.... All of this under Bush.... oh the outing of a CIA opperative and her consequently her entire team.

You Bush lover's are very very delusional... seek help.

"...all of Bush's executive orders, his overriding/ignoring congress, the use of wedge issues, the use of the press to squash opposition to the Iraq war early on, the fact our press is not allowed to photograph coffins coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan is still ongoing, the lying to get us into the war... the destruction of our Justice Department, the destruction of
the FDA, FEMA, the wire tapping, Chinese Imports, the re-emergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the proliferation of Nuclear Arms to BOTH India and Pakistan.... North Korean and Iran developing Nuclear technology.... All of this under Bush.... oh the outing of a CIA opperative and her consequently her entire team."

Will:

It looks like you're the one who's delusional. You keep spraying this graffiti as if it's supposed to mean something. This sort of rhetorical vandalism on your part is nothing more than your showing of intellectual dishonestly and irresponsibility, as well as your deeply rooted mental illness.

Your brand of insanity is that you feel if you lie long and hard enough that somehow it's supposed to make it true. Keep spraying your trash graffiti if you must, Will (no one believes you anyway), and try to loosen up your tin-foil cap. If you have any blood maybe it will make its way to that turd you euphemistically call a "brain".

[Will from NYC]

So you're saying none of those things happened under a GOP President named Bush??

[spintreebob]

Wasn't this thread about Teddy Roosevelt? At least compare TR to Bush if you bring Bush into it.

Clearly Woodrow Wilson fits the description of fascism described by everyone above. Wilson used the Democrat party's KKK to intimidate and silence critics.

Woodrow Wilson set the mold that is still followed by the Democrat party ... the party of the Plantation managers who try to keep everyone on the plantation happy.

It is no coincidence that the Democrat primaries including and especially the super-delegates drafted the ultimate symbol of a happy plantation that will be managed for the benefit of everyone.

"So you're saying none of those things happened under a GOP President named Bush??"

Let me be clear: What I'm saying is that the claptrap you post—and repost ad nauseum—is the same lies and bilge that has been spewed for the past 8 years to the point of painful redundancy. It's nothing more than wack-job liberal talking points, fiction and make-believe with nothing to back them up as substantial fact. It's the same old beating of the dead horse that isn't going to give up any more blood. Everything you list (and continue to list) against Bush/GOP blah blah, is really nothing more than your hate-motivated derangement for the man. Hate doesn't equal facts. Clear on it now?

Since Bush is at record-low popularity, the country must be deranged, according to anon.