I will gladly send him a copy of the speeches I made in 1910 which I think cover most of the ground.
I believe in pure democracy. With Lincoln, I hold that "this country, with its institutions, belongs to the people who inhabit it.. Whenever they shall grow weary of the existing government, they can exercise their constitutional right of amending it."
We Progressives believe that the people have the right, the power, and the duty to protect themselves and their own welfare; that human rights are supreme over all other rights; that wealth should be the servant, not the master, of the people.
We believe that unless representative government does absolutely represent the people it is not representative government at all.
This all sounds good on the surface, until reason rears it's ugly head and you begin to remember that democracy doesn't work. That's why the founders gave us a republic...... if we can keep it.
Furthermore, knowing Roosevelt's background helps us to understand what he is really saying here. As I recently noted, he plainly stated:
I have actively fought in favor of grafting on our social life, no less than our industrial life, many of the German ideals.
This was very common for the progressive central planners of Roosevelt's day. They didn't like all these American ideals with this nonsense of inalienable rights. It's no wonder that to the casual observer, Wilson largely implemented the plans as laid out by Roosevelt's progressive party.
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