21st century president

Perhaps the most indelible impression one is left with after reading Edmund Morris’s two-volume (so far) biography of Teddy Roosevelt is that in many respects TR was the first “20th Century President.” This is the case not simply because he became President in 1901, succeeding the assassinated McKinley, but because he was the first president to embody 20th century American values.

Born into an aristocratic class that valued breeding and propriety above nearly everything else, Teddy was often un-proper. He was fond of taking nude swims in the East River during his tenure as President, and he once killed a cougar with a hunting knife. As TR grew in political prominence, many of his upper-class peers as well as many members of his own family despised him. As a matter of principle, they believed politics was an undignified position for a well-born man. They could not believe it when, over and over again, Teddy fought against corrupt political machines and greedy businessmen, using the government as his weapon.

In addition to his populist tendencies, he was the first president who believed that it was important to translate America’s economic dynamism into an international presence; he was the first to effectively use the press to further his agenda; he played peacemaker between warring nations, winning himself a Nobel Prize. He was an aristocrat-turned-cowboy-turned-populist. Above all else, Teddy was a man of action, and in the following 100 years America has often followed that pattern. We are, for better and for worse, people of action.

Still, I wonder how much of an influence TR had in shaping America during the early parts of the 20th century. He certainly shaped the political scene: he was president until 1908; his hand-picked successor, William Taft, was president until 1912; and TR, feeling betrayed by Taft and running against him in 1912, split the Republican vote and led directly to the election of Woodrow Wilson.

But how much can one man and his political vision shape the course of an entire country? Perhaps Roosevelt’s most important attribute was his ability to personify the already-changing perception Americans had towards their country. He was the America that people wanted to become.

All of this makes me wonder who will be the first officially “21st century president.” Who is the person that Americans see ourselves becoming? It certainly isn’t George W., and I can’t imagine that McCain fits the bill, either. He’s a relic of the 20th century. I wonder if Obama’s popular appeal is based on people’s hopes that we as a country can become more like him – strong in our diversity.

Certainly one era is ending, but it remains to be seen what shape the new era will take.