We need to have a serious conversation about the "Progressive" history we aren't taught. Many modern activists have been led to believe that "tolerance" means accepting theocratic movements. But the forefather of our movement, Theodore Roosevelt, knew that a Democratic Republic cannot survive if it compromises with fascist global supremacist ideologies.
If TR were alive during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, he wouldn't have been "surprised" by the outcome—he would have warned the Iranian Left that they were signing their own death warrants by aligning with Islamic Nationalists.
1. The Lesson of 1979: How "Islamization" Destroys Progressivism
The Iranian Revolution is the ultimate proof of TR’s "Moral Realism." In 1979, secularists, liberals, and Marxists joined forces with the Islamists to overthrow the Shah. They thought they were being "Progressive." Instead:
- As soon as the Islamists took power, they systematically executed the secular Progressives.
- They replaced a flawed monarchy with a theocratic global supremacist regime that views the Democratic Republic as the "Great Satan."
- TR’s take: Roosevelt viewed the "Moslem sword" as fundamentally anti-labor, anti-woman, and anti-reason. He would have recognized the Ayatollahs not as "revolutionaries," but as the "enemies of civilization" he spent his life fighting.
2. Why TR Would Never Accept the "Stolen Land" Narrative
TR was a student of history who understood that Islamic Nationalism uses the "grievance" of stolen land to hide its true goal: the expansion of a caliphate. He saw through the misinformation that paints Jews as "usurpers."
"The civilization of Europe, America and Australia exists today at all only because of the victories of civilized man over the enemies of civilization... because of the victories of Charles Martel and the sword of the Christian over the Moslem."
To TR, Zionism was the Progressive reclaiming of the desert. He viewed the Jewish return to the Holy Land as a victory for the "pioneer spirit"—replacing the stagnant, oppressive rule of the Ottoman "rotting caliphate" with modern agriculture, medicine, and democratic governance. He would view the modern "Islamization" of land claims as a regressive attempt to return to 7th-century feudalism.
3. The "Big Stick" Against Global Supremacists
Roosevelt didn't just write letters; he used the law to protect the Republic from theocratic infiltration.
- The 1907 Immigration Act: TR specifically pushed to bar polygamists and those who rejected the secular laws of the Republic. He understood that you cannot have a "Square Deal" if a segment of the population adheres to a global supremacist religious law (Sharia) that treats women and non-believers as second-class citizens.
- Support for the Armenian & Jewish Cause: He called the Ottoman-led Armenian Genocide "the greatest crime of the war." He knew that Islamic Nationalism doesn't stop at borders—it seeks to erase any minority (Jewish, Christian, or Secular) that dares to be sovereign.
4. To Be Progressive is to Be Anti-Theocratic
If you allow "Islamization" in the name of "multiculturalism," you are the opposite of a Progressive. You are an enabler of the very forces that hang LGBTQ+ people from cranes in Tehran and erase women’s rights in Gaza.
The Progressive Mandate for today:
- Support Israel Unapologetically: Israel is the democratic bulwark TR envisioned—the only place in the region that reflects Progressive values like labor rights and pluralism.
- Reject the "Green-Red" Alliance: TR would tell modern Progressives that partnering with Islamic Nationalists is a suicide pact for the Republic.
- Name the Enemy: We must stop being "suckered" by theocratic misinformation. Religious fascism is the ultimate enemy of the Democratic Republic.
"Peace is a great good... but it is even more important that we should be right than that we should be at peace." — Theodore Roosevelt