Teddy Roosevelt was one of my top five USA presidents.
Theodore Roosevelt, Jr. (T.R.) is almost singlehandedly responsible for turning the Office of the Executive into the grandstanding spectacle it has now become:
- The U.S Constitution never intended the Office of the Executive (the "President") to become a position of substitute Monarch/ Emperor that it has steadily been approaching over the last Century (thanks in no small regard to T.R.).
The idea, borrowed from the Romans, was for equality among the various branches of government (balanced government), with the emphasis (if any) from the Congress (the "People).
You can see how all that has changed (nothing stays the same).
I am no Constitutional scholar, but I did pledge to honor and defend that essay in governing. So here is my two bits:
- I think it is unfortunate that so much emphasis now is focused on our President, rather than our Congress. And I also think it unfortunate that the Congress (for the greedy purpose of re-election), has become so prone to abandon leadership and relinquish that role of leading almost exclusively to the Executive. But that's the way it is. As Robert E. Lee once put it, "Too bad; too bad".