The
Roosevelts documentary by Ken Burns is an overwhelming one, partially due to
the 14 hour running time, but mostly due to the extraordinary achievements of
Theodore, Franklin, and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Sure they were each flawed people who made terrible mistakes, but they
were also some of our greatest leaders.
The great shame of the Roosevelts is that Eleanor never had a chance to run
and perhaps win the Presidency. We may
have missed out on our greatest Roosevelt presidency. Of the Roosevelts, I have a soft spot for the
old Bull Moose himself just out of sheer amazement of what the man was able to
accomplish. He was the first President
to win the Nobel Prize, invite a black man to dine at the White House, ride in
a submarine, and leave the country during his term. The man doubled our national parks and gave an
hour long speech after being shot in the ribs.
Theodore Roosevelt embodies the ideal restlessness and irrepressible
American spirit that we strive for and was a man that relished the position of
trying to help the average American against the grievances waged by an unfair
corporate system. The man had his flaws,
but even in his flaws do I find him admirable.
Theodore Roosevelt was a war monger plain and simple, but unlike the
chicken hawks of today, he actually fought in the war he supported (even if he
wasn’t the best colonel per se). Can you
imagine a member of Congress or a high ranking government official resigning
their post to go fight in a war? I didn’t
think so. Roosevelt was a scholar and
outdoorsman, a cowboy and a New Yorker, but most of all was a great American
and it’s a damn shame he didn’t run for a third term.
I could go
on and on talking about Theodore Roosevelt (the man went out on the beat as
police commissioner!) but I would like to shift focus to the question of
whether these great leaders could get elected to public office today. Ken Burns says that they could not and I
would have to agree with the expert documentarian. Theodore Roosevelt is too crazy and even I,
an ardent admirer, believe that he was half insane. We scorn our politicians for getting animated
(Howard Dean for example – a point brought up by Burns in an interview on the Daily
Show) and Teddy is nothing but pure emotion and restlessness. Theodore Roosevelt would have to be prepared for
the grating nature of the 24 hour news cycle.
Franklin Roosevelt would not have been able to escape the constant
questions about his wellness. Would we
let a cripple be President? Ken Burns
said no and I’ll agree with him. A man
reliant on braces or in a wheelchair does not give off the Presidential look
that television and our punditry requires.
Eleanor Roosevelt, who I consider our greatest first lady, would also
not be able to survive the political arena unscathed. It’s not hard to imagine the flack today she
would get from the right wing pundit sphere for her embrace of left wing
politics and her very active role in the administration. We are living in a political arena where Michelle
Obama gets criticized for her programs targeting childhood obesity (how is this
controversial); can you even think to imagine what would have been said about
Eleanor Roosevelt? The mind shutters to
think of such remarks.
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History is a great documentary and I recommend
that people view it or at the very least, read the Wikipedia entries on these
great Americans. Our country has a vast,
complicated history and it’s a damn shame that so many Americans could care
less about it. One could do no worse
than starting off with three people who profoundly changed the 20th
century for the better.
Works Cited
Brodeur, Nicole. "Teddy Roosevelt Was ‘cuckoo’ — and Other
Quips from Ken Burns." The Seattle Times. N.p., 14 Sept. 2014.
Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. Dir. Ken Burns. IMDb. IMDb.com,
n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
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