Trump is no Teddy
Donald, you’re no Teddy Roosevelt
by Mike Konopacki
Since the shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania, pundits have gone from branding it “unprecedented” (which it’s not) to comparing it to other incidents of political violence that have plagued our nation. Some have invoked the 1912 assassination attempt against Teddy Roosevelt, another former president seeking to regain his seat. The reality, however, is more a lesson in contrasts than comparisons.
On October 14 that year, Roosevelt was on his way to a campaign speech in Milwaukee (ironically where the GOP convention is now) when Bavarian immigrant John Schrank shot him in the chest with a 38-caliber pistol. There was no Secret Service for ex-presidents then. Roosevelt went on to his speech and spoke for 80 minutes before going to a hospital. He thought that since he wasn’t coughing blood, the bullet hadn’t pierced his lung.
He was saved by his metal glasses case and the 50-page speech folded in his coat pocket. The bullet cut into his chest muscle but stopped there. He used the incident to proclaim, “It takes more than that to kill a Bull Moose.” Doctors later said the bullet was too dangerous to remove; he lived with it the rest of his life.
The Trump-Roosevelt comparison? An assassination attempt and a common party is as far as it goes. The speech that saved Roosevelt’s life, “Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual,” advocated principles for “social and industrial justice” that, today, are completely at odds with Trump’s.
Anti-immigrant bigotry: “I ask in our civic life that we in the same way pay heed only to the man’s quality of citizenship, to repudiate as the worst enemy that we can have whoever tries to get us to discriminate for or against any man because of his creed or his birth-place.”
Organized labor: “I make my appeal to treat the laborer fairly, to recognize…that the laboring man must organize for his own protection, and that it is the duty of the rest of us to help him and not hinder him in organizing.”
Corporate power: “Our proposal is really to break up monopoly. Our proposal is to put in the law – to lay down certain requirements, and then require the commerce commission – the industrial commission – to see that the trusts live up to those requirements.”
Roosevelt also showed compassion. When supporters attacked Schrank and wanted to hang him, Roosevelt had police take him into custody. Deemed insane, Schrank remained hospitalized at the Central State Hospital in Waupun until his death in 1943.
Sadly, political violence is deeply ingrained in America’s DNA. Since Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, three other presidents have been killed and five others assaulted, including Ronald Reagan who was shot. Republicans now call for civility while blaming Democrats for the bloodshed and deflecting from Trump’s history of words and actions preceding violent confrontations in Charlottesville, El Paso, Pittsburgh, the January 6 insurrection and more.
Roosevelt, on the other hand, bleeding from his chest, was crystal clear:
“Friends, I will disown and repudiate any man of my party who attacks with such foul slander and abuse any opponent of any other party; and now I wish to say seriously to all the daily newspapers, to the Republican, the Democratic and the Socialist parties, that they can not, month in and month out and year in and year out, make the kind of untruthful, of bitter assault that they have made and not expect that brutal, violent natures, or brutal and violent characters, especially when the brutality is accompanied by a not very strong mind; they can not expect that such natures will be unaffected by it.”
And Trump? In the heat of the moment, he pumped his fist and goaded supporters to “fight, fight, fight.” Will we ever see a kinder, gentler Trump? Don’t count on it.
Mike Konopacki is a St. Augustine based educator, author and nationally-syndicated political cartoonist with partner Gary Huck at Huck/Konopacki Cartoons
This is a spot on and insightful article.