It's always bothered me, slightly, that Teddy Roosevelt is on Mt. Rushmore. Yeah, he was a Republican but then he became a Progressive -- which had a slightly different flavor than it does now.
TR succeeded McKinley when McKinley was assassinated and served as POTUS until 1909 when Taft was elected. But Taft wasn't conservative enough for TR, so TR split from the Republican Party and formed the Bull Moose Party, as a champion of "progressive" causes. The split in the Repub party allowed Wilson and the Democrats to win the election in 1912, and we know how that turned out.
Blatant racism, WWI, Wilson's dementia, and other catastrophes including the Spanish flu.
Sound familiar? Yep, history does repeat itself.
So despite TR's reputation as a "trust buster" and a clean food and drug advocate, not to mention a big national park kinda guy, I'm wondering if the Progressives from the early 20th century would have been nearly as influential without TR.
Mt. Rushmore's sculptor was ga-ga over TR, hence he's up there with the other three. But in my mind, that 4th head should have been James Madison, the author of the Constitution.
YMMV.
