Progressive Party (1920)

Transcription

As you're probably aware, this is a moose, but more specifically, it's a Bull Moose. As you can see, these creatures are massive and currently hold the top dog position in the deer family. While they're typically slow going and mellow, Bull Moose can become highly aggressive. Take these two for example. It's rut season for these two and the battle for a mate is on. So why am I showing you a video of Bull Moose? Well this kind of stuff actually goes hand in hand with the political party I want to tell you about called the Progressive Party that was put together for the 1912 election in the United States. This Progressive Party just so happens to go buy a more famous name though. Some might go so far as to call this party the Bull Moose Party. You see, the reason this party received this nickname is because of something that Theodore Roosevelt, the founder of this party, said shortly after it was formed. Feeling pretty good about the circumstances at the time, Roosevelt was recorded to have said "I'm feeling like a Bull Moose," and the Bull Moose name stuck with Roosevelt for the rest of the 1912 campaign. At first this might seem a little confusing because you might recall that Teddy Roosevelt was president from 1901 to 1909, and represented the well-established Republican Party. This is true, but the reason that Roosevelt was no longer affiliated with the republican party in 1912 was because of his falling out with the now President, William Howard Taft, who was Republican as well. Roosevelt originally supported Taft when Taft was elected as the next president of the United States 1908, but shortly after, Taft was showing his true colors and Teddy did not like it. Taft was breaking up a lot of the things that Roosevelt worked so hard to protect during his presidency with one of the big issues being president Taft using the anti-trust Act to break up the United States Steel Corporation. This was done despite the fact that Roosevelt had told the people of America that JP Morgan owned US Steel was a "good trust." While Taft and Roosevelt claimed to be of the same party, it was clear they were not. Thus when 1912 rolled around and Taft was up for reelection, Roosevelt challenged him by using a third party - the Bull Moose party. In the end, Roosevelt's third party failed to win the election, but they did receive more electoral support than Taft. Woodrow Wilson won the presidency for the Democrats with 435 electoral votes, but Roosevelt's Bull Moose Party gained 88 electoral votes, while Taft's Republicans gained 8 measly electoral votes. Although the Bull Moose party was short-lived, they played a huge role in shaping Republican politics. The progressive Republicans that supported Roosevelt were abandoned by their former party and would eventually find their way into the Democratic Party attempting to gain positions in big urban cities. Meanwhile, all those that remained in the Republican Party would see to a very right-winged, Conservative Party in regards to business with key support for ideas such as free markets and Laissez-Faire. Free markets being a type of economy where the government does not control the supply and the demand for that economy, and Laissez-Faire being an economic environment where transactions between private parties are free from government restrictions, tariffs, and subsidies.