We're probably not as as far apart on our view of history as you may think. I do believe that TR firmly believed he was doing the right thing when he took lands of unique character for federal protection. I credit him greatly for developing the US navy into a world class power and for developing the US voice in international affairs. However, his failing was in seeing the federal government as a means for meddling in issues that should have been no business of the federal government. It is this elitist mindset that led to further power expansions being accepted by the states and by the individual citizens. It was under TR that federal regulatory agencies were formed and it was these agencies that were used to control ever more of individual lives. Perhaps he thought they would always be altruistic and not overreach their authority but it was TR that created the dragon that has since gone so far out of control.
I believe the same about Lincoln BTW but I cut him a bit more slack because of the crisis he was facing. He also put in sunsets to his power expansions even though congress extended them as long as they could and this should have been a lesson to any true constitutionalists that followed.
I agree. We're probably a little bit like the Federalist and Anti-Federalist debates at the beginning of the republic, with you arguing the Jeffersonian point of view and me arguing the Washingtonian (or Hamiltonian lite) point of view.
The key point, I think, is that libtards will seize on any excuse to expand Federal control. If not the "General Welfare" clause in the constitution, then the very sensible conservation steps which TR took to creat our national parks.
I just don't see blaming the people who put the "General Welfare" clause in the constitution or TR for the aberrant behavior of modern libtards as making a lot of sense.
Even my favorite presidents (Washington for the put-down of the Whiskey Rebellion, Reagan for bugging out of Lebanon after the barracks bombing) could get blamed for the ills of modern libtardism if you carry things that far.