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DONALD, YOU’RE NO TEDDY ROOSEVELT  
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Mike Konopacki
July 17, 2024
The Cap Times
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_ Since the shooting at Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania, pundits
have gone from branding it "unprecedented" (which it's not) to
comparing it to other incidents of political violence that have
plagued our nation. _

Cartoon by Mike Konopacki, Huck/Konopacki Labor Cartoons

 

Some have invoked the 1912 assassination attempt against Teddy
Roosevelt, another former president seeking to regain his seat. The
reality, however, is more a lesson in contrasts than comparisons.

On Oct. 14 that year, Roosevelt was on his way to a campaign speech in
Milwaukee (ironically where the GOP convention is now) when Bavarian
immigrant John Schrank shot him in the chest with a 38-caliber pistol.
There was no Secret Service for ex-presidents then. Roosevelt went on
to his speech and spoke for 80 minutes before going to a hospital. He
thought that since he wasn’t coughing blood, the bullet hadn’t
pierced his lung.

He was saved by his metal glasses case and the 50-page speech folded
in his coat pocket. The bullet cut into his chest muscle but stopped
there. He used the incident to proclaim, “It takes more than that to
kill a Bull Moose.” Doctors later said the bullet was too dangerous
to remove; he lived with it the rest of his life.

The Trump-Roosevelt comparison? An assassination attempt and a common
party is as far as it goes. The speech that saved Roosevelt’s life,
“Progressive Cause Greater Than Any Individual
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advocated principles for "social and industrial justice" that, today,
are completely at odds with Trump's.

Anti-immigrant bigotry: “I ask in our civic life that we in the same
way pay heed only to the man's quality of citizenship, to repudiate as
the worst enemy that we can have whoever tries to get us to
discriminate for or against any man because of his creed or his
birth-place.”

Organized labor: “I make my appeal to treat the laborer fairly, to
recognize ... that the laboring man must organize for his own
protection, and that it is the duty of the rest of us to help him and
not hinder him in organizing."

Corporate power: "Our proposal is really to break up monopoly. Our
proposal is to put in the law — to lay down certain requirements,
and then require the commerce commission — the industrial commission
— to see that the trusts live up to those requirements."

Roosevelt also showed compassion. When supporters attacked Schrank and
wanted to hang him, Roosevelt had police take him into custody. Deemed
insane, Schrank remained hospitalized at the Central State Hospital in
Waupun until his death in 1943.

Sadly, political violence is deeply ingrained in America’s DNA.
Since Lincoln’s assassination in 1865, three other presidents have
been killed and five others assaulted, including Ronald Reagan, who
was shot. Republicans now call for civility while blaming Democrats
for the bloodshed and deflecting from Trump's history of words and
actions preceding violent confrontations in Charlottesville, El Paso,
Pittsburgh, the Jan. 6 insurrection and more.

Roosevelt, on the other hand, bleeding from his chest, was crystal
clear:

"Friends, I will disown and repudiate any man of my party who attacks
with such foul slander and abuse any opponent of any other party; and
now I wish to say seriously to all the daily newspapers, to the
Republican, the Democratic and the Socialist parties, that they can
not, month in and month out and year in and year out, make the kind of
untruthful, of bitter assault that they have made and not expect that
brutal, violent natures, or brutal and violent characters, especially
when the brutality is accompanied by a not very strong mind; they can
not expect that such natures will be unaffected by it."

And Trump? In the heat of the moment, he pumped his fist and goaded
supporters to "fight, fight, fight." Will we ever see a kinder,
gentler Trump? Don't count on it.

_[Former Madisonian MIKE KONOPACKI draws a weekly cartoon for The
Capital Times. The educator, author and nationally syndicated
political cartoonist with partner Gary Huck at Huck/Konopacki Cartoons
now lives in St. Augustine, Florida.]_

_Re-posted with permission of the author._

* Donald Trump
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* Teddy Roosevelt
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* MAGA
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* Fascism
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* 2024 Elections
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* Trump shooting
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* political violence
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* U.S. history
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* anti-immigrant
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* organized labor
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* corporate power
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* compassion
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