An angle not represented in the media is the similarities in the policies and platforms of Theodore Roosevelt and Elizabeth Warren. In the media, most often there is this constant score keeping of who is on the left or right and how someone went further in a certain “directon.” Elizabeth Warren’s proposal for universal healthcare put the media in a tizzy. “Good grief! That is socialism! Elizabeth Warren has gone further to the left!” In the New York Times you can read The Billionaires Are Getting Nervous about the possibility that they would be taxed more than they are now and how the economy will be in shambles if we help poor people with healthcare. A pretty odd headline when you consider that billionaires have in essence little to be be nervous about. They do not have to worry about their next meal, surely have a fancy private doctor and will always have a roof over their heads – probably three or four mansions. Really? Nervous? That Trump slashed the marginal tax rate by 21% for billionaires just increased the inequities in the United States. Let’s not worry about the billionaires and their anxieties that they may one day be simply millionaires and maybe even have to stand in line at the DMV.
In all aspects of modern life and especially in marketing, social media and politics the maxim that “perception is reality” seems to gain more and more traction. The phrase “perception is reality” is a simplification of an 18th century theory called “immaterialism” or “subjective idealism.” It’s the childish notion that something does not exist if it is not perceived. It elevates reality to only things that are registered in our senses.
Theodore Roosevelt was male. Elizabeth Warren is female. How could these two people be possibly similar? They look so different. One is a vigorous macho male who traveled to Africa to shoot wild elephants. The other a very smart, experienced, competent woman who probably has never shot a wild boar, a deer or even a pheasant! Simply look beyond the covers and the similarities abound. Let me list out the similarities. I will put Roosevelt’s name first just because he came first and is now dead, not because he is a guy.
Both Theodore Roosevelt and Elizabeth Warren where once Republicans who left the Republican party.
After being the youngest president and a Republican, in 1912 Roosevelt left the party and helped formed the Progressive “Bull Moose” Party which called for wide-ranging progressive reforms.
Elizabeth Warren was a registered Republican from 1991 to 1996. She now is running for president as a Democrat.
Both Theodore Roosevelt and Elizabeth Warren proposed universal healthcare.
Roosevelt saw the government as a crucial force in regulating industries to improve the health of people. He saw through the Pure Food and Drug Act, Meat Inspection Act. While Theodore Roosevelt lived at a time before antibiotics and had infected abscesses in his leg craved out with a sharp knife, you get a sense that he believed in some form of universal health care with the government playing the prime role.
“Of all the questions which can come before this nation, short of the actual preservation of its existence in a great war, there is none which compares in importance with the great central task of leaving this land even a better land for our descendants than it is for us. Let me add that the health and vitality of our people are at least as well worth conserving as their forests, waters, lands, and minerals, and in this great work the national government must bear a most important part.” Theodore Roosevelt – 1910
Elizabeth Warren has a Medicare for All plan which gives everyone good insurance and cuts their health care costs to nearly zero – without increasing middle-class taxes one penny.
Elizabeth supports Medicare for All, which would provide all Americans with a public health care program. Medicare for All is the best way to give every single person in this country a guarantee of high-quality health care. Everybody is covered. Nobody goes broke because of a medical bill. No more fighting with insurance companies. Elizabeth Warren – 2019
Both Theodore Roosevelt and Elizabeth Warren saw the monopolies of their day as a problem.
Roosevelt through anti-trust laws was able to break up the railroads and regulate food industries and big-oil. The list is long and complicated, but like our present era of vast income inequities, the early 20th century had its similarities with vast fortunes in very few hands
Elisabeth Warren wants to breakup the tech monopolies like Facebook, Amazon and Google. If Teddy Roosevelt were alive today, he would do the same thing.
Perception is not reality. Reality is the actual stuff that exists even if we do not see it. It is the stuff under the glossy cover.
