Do you believe in coincidence? I know Hillary does but that is a different story for a different day. I wish to relate a small coincidence that happened to me last week.
I am reading the book The Black Chamber by S.M. Stirling which, so far is so good. The premise is that on a fateful day in 1912 Teddy Roosevelt makes the decision to run for another term and by happenstance President Howard Taft dies. Teddy goes on to win the election. The rest, as they say, is the story. Or maybe history. Or maybe what leads to this coincidence.
In the story his vision of the country that he brings about is based upon a progressive book written by one of his advisers. Herbert Croly is the author of the book The Promise of American Life published in 1909 which was a work that influenced not a 3rd Roosevelt term but 4 terms of another Roosevelt, Franklin D. Not to mention most of the current Democrats vying for the nomination. Wikipedia informs,
The book is said to “offer a manifesto of Progressive beliefs” that “anticipated the transition from competitive to corporate capitalism and from limited government to the welfare state.”
So what is the coincidence? I don’t know if anyone reads Ace of Spades but every morning there is the Morning Report by J.J. Sefton (Although others fill in). A plethora of interesting links to stories and articles of interest. The Friday January 17, 2020 report has a link to this article appearing in American Greatness with the title The Dead man who won the last Democratic Presidential debate. So who was this man? Why Herbert Croly!
Coincidence? I think not!
So do you have any interesting coincidence in your lives? Share.
Croly coined the term “the New Nationalism” in his 1909 book, which Teddy Roosevelt took up as his political mantra after his speech a Osawatomie, Kansas, on September 1, 1910
The “alternate history” premise of BLACK CHAMBER is that Taft, who was a human walrus and gained another 70 pounds in 1912 under the stress of the election, dies of a heart attack just after losing the Ohio primary to Roosevelt (that was his home state). It’s a miracle that he didn’t, in fact! Taft’s VP, Sherman, was already deathly ill and died later that year in our history.
That lets Teddy R. and his faction of Progressives take over the Republican Party, which then goes on to thrash Woodrow Wilson in November. Wilson didn’t take more than 40% of the vote in any state which hadn’t been in the Confederacy: he won nationally with 42% of the popular vote because the Progressive Party (the “Bull Moose” party formed by TR after the nomination was stolen at the convention) split the Republican vote. TR came second, the only time a 3rd-party candidate has done that.
Wilson and Teddy Roosevelt were both Progressives, but of very different types — it was a “broad church” at the time.