Why do we not hear political rhetoric like this anymore?

“Labor is prior to, and independent of, capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration.” Abraham Lincoln

“The essence of any struggle for healthy liberty has always been . . . to take from some one man or class of men the right to enjoy power, or wealth, or position, or immunity, which has not been earned by service to his or their fellows.

The Constitution guarantees protections to property, and we must make that promise good. But it does not give the right of suffrage to any corporation. The true friend of property, the true conservative, is he who insists that property shall be the servant and not the aster of the commonwealth, who insists that the creature is of man's making shall be the servant and not the master of the man who made it. The citizens of the United States must effectively control the mighty commercial forces which they have themselves called into being.

(The people must insist on) complete and effective publicity of corporate affairs [and a law prohibiting the use of corporate funds directly or indirectly for political purposes.


I rank dividends below human character. If our political institutions were perfect, they would absolutely prevent the political domination of money in any part of our affairs We need to make our political representatives more quickly and sensitively responsive to the people whose servants they are . . . It is particularly important that all moneys received or expended for campaign purposes, not only after election, but before election as well . . .”

Theodore Roosevelt, The “New Nationalism” speech, Denver, Colorado, 29 August, 1910

One of the principle features of TR's New Nationalism was a call for “a judiciary that favored individual over property rights.” Edmund Morris, Colonel Roosevelt, p, 109 (2010).