labeled Taft, his designated heir, insufficiently progressive and unsuccessfully challenged him in the Republican primaries and at the hotly contested convention. In the general election, Roosevelt bolted from the GOP to run on a radical Progressive (or âBull Mooseâ) third-party ticket. The Roosevelt-Taft split guaranteed the election of Woodrow Wilson, the most radical Democrat in U.S. history. Wilson garnered a mere 41.8 percent of the popular vote but received 435 electoral votes to Rooseveltâs 88 and Taftâs minuscule 8.
Just a month after the Mackay-Bennett completed its grim recovery operation, the hatchet-faced Wilson addressed the prestigious Economic Club of New York at a hotel bearing the name of one of the Titanic âs most prominent victims. Speaking to business leaders at Times Squareâs Hotel Astor, Wilson pushed back against complaints that his ideas opposed the free-enterprise system. He believed that wealthy families such as the Astors had turned the American republic into their own fiefdom. The rich, he said, had to be reined in, their wealth confiscated for the public good, if necessary.
âThe very thing that government cannot let alone is business,â Wilson blustered. âGovernment cannot take its hands off business.Government must regulate business because that isthe foundation of every other relationship.â
The tragic sinking of the Titanic , a ship that its owners boasted was unsinkable, was the consequence of hubristic, humanist assumptions about manâs ability to control natural law and defy the will of God.
And so was the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson.
LIBERAL IDOL . . . AND BLIND SPOT
----
If youâve listened to me on radio or TV, you probably know that Iâm not a member in good standing of the Woodrow Wilson fan club. What you might not know, however, is that neither is the American public. Not a single recent public-opinion survey lists Wilson as among the greatest U.S. presidents. Even Jimmy Carter is more popular.
Yes, even Jimmy Carter.
Unfortunately, the people who write history havenât quite figured out just how awful a president (not to mention a person) Wilson actually was. In fact, few former presidents are held in such high esteem by modern liberals. Historians, most of them progressives themselves,routinely rank Wilson among the top ten of the nationâs chief executives. In fact, two polls conducted by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. bothrated Wilson behind only Lincoln, Washington, and (big surprise) Franklin Roosevelt.
How can that be explained? Hereâs Howard University historian Edna Medfordâs attempt: âHow we rank our presidents is, to a large extent, influenced by our own times.Todayâs concerns shape our views of the past, be it in the area of foreign policy, managing the economy, or human rights.â
If thatâs true, well, it only makes the liberal academic fetish for Wilson even more bizarre. Few presidents displayed such open contemptfor the Constitution they swore to preserve, protect, and defend. Even fewer had such a severe disdain for women, minorities, and anyone else who deviated from Wilsonâs view of the âperfect citizen.â
Some modern progressives have mixed emotions about Wilson. Embarrassed by his blatant prejudices, a few have demanded that his name be stripped from Princetonâs elite Woodrow Wilson School of Government. ii Yet most still seem to excuse him, in much the same way they excuse the abhorrent behavior of people like Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, or Robert Byrd simply because these people represent an ideology they support.
Never is this more apparent than in the case of Wilson. Here, for example, is an all-too-typical description of him from the ânonpartisanâ University of Virginiaâs Miller Center:
Woodrow Wilson wasone of Americaâs greatest Presidents. His domestic program expanded the role of the federal government in
Just a month after the Mackay-Bennett completed its grim recovery operation, the hatchet-faced Wilson addressed the prestigious Economic Club of New York at a hotel bearing the name of one of the Titanic âs most prominent victims. Speaking to business leaders at Times Squareâs Hotel Astor, Wilson pushed back against complaints that his ideas opposed the free-enterprise system. He believed that wealthy families such as the Astors had turned the American republic into their own fiefdom. The rich, he said, had to be reined in, their wealth confiscated for the public good, if necessary.
âThe very thing that government cannot let alone is business,â Wilson blustered. âGovernment cannot take its hands off business.Government must regulate business because that isthe foundation of every other relationship.â
The tragic sinking of the Titanic , a ship that its owners boasted was unsinkable, was the consequence of hubristic, humanist assumptions about manâs ability to control natural law and defy the will of God.
And so was the candidacy of Woodrow Wilson.
LIBERAL IDOL . . . AND BLIND SPOT
----
If youâve listened to me on radio or TV, you probably know that Iâm not a member in good standing of the Woodrow Wilson fan club. What you might not know, however, is that neither is the American public. Not a single recent public-opinion survey lists Wilson as among the greatest U.S. presidents. Even Jimmy Carter is more popular.
Yes, even Jimmy Carter.
Unfortunately, the people who write history havenât quite figured out just how awful a president (not to mention a person) Wilson actually was. In fact, few former presidents are held in such high esteem by modern liberals. Historians, most of them progressives themselves,routinely rank Wilson among the top ten of the nationâs chief executives. In fact, two polls conducted by Arthur Schlesinger Jr. bothrated Wilson behind only Lincoln, Washington, and (big surprise) Franklin Roosevelt.
How can that be explained? Hereâs Howard University historian Edna Medfordâs attempt: âHow we rank our presidents is, to a large extent, influenced by our own times.Todayâs concerns shape our views of the past, be it in the area of foreign policy, managing the economy, or human rights.â
If thatâs true, well, it only makes the liberal academic fetish for Wilson even more bizarre. Few presidents displayed such open contemptfor the Constitution they swore to preserve, protect, and defend. Even fewer had such a severe disdain for women, minorities, and anyone else who deviated from Wilsonâs view of the âperfect citizen.â
Some modern progressives have mixed emotions about Wilson. Embarrassed by his blatant prejudices, a few have demanded that his name be stripped from Princetonâs elite Woodrow Wilson School of Government. ii Yet most still seem to excuse him, in much the same way they excuse the abhorrent behavior of people like Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, or Robert Byrd simply because these people represent an ideology they support.
Never is this more apparent than in the case of Wilson. Here, for example, is an all-too-typical description of him from the ânonpartisanâ University of Virginiaâs Miller Center:
Woodrow Wilson wasone of Americaâs greatest Presidents. His domestic program expanded the role of the federal government in
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