Debs: Threat to Roosevelt or Wilson?

[minionofmidas]

To follow up to that, the nation at the time was in a progressive mood.

...with the result that even people who were not, as it were, particularly progressive, were marketed as "Progressives".
Such as... you know... Woodrow Wilson. Or Teddy Roosevelt. Or even (before his presidency, which destroyed all such illusions) Bill Taft.

[minionofmidas]

To follow up to that, the nation at the time was in a progressive mood.

...with the result that even people who were not, as it were, particularly progressive, were marketed as "Progressives".
Such as... you know... Woodrow Wilson. Or Teddy Roosevelt. Or even (before his presidency, which destroyed all such illusions) Bill Taft.

Roosevelt and Wilson were definately Progressives. Roosevelt went after shafty trusts, railroads, and slaughterhouses. Wilson was key in passing the Clayton anti-trust act, ending child labor (though the courts messed this up), and the 8 hour work day.

True enough. That's what happens when politicians try to grab a certain mantle - they help pass some of the agenda associated with it.

Anyone as classist and as gung-ho imperialist as Teddy Roosevelt, or as racist as Woodrow Wilson... is not *exactly* what Progressivism was supposed to be about. Although neither man was exactly a dyed-in-the-wool reactionary either.