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A voice from the deep-distant past. Teddy Roosevelt was considered to be the first Progressive President of the United States. During his time in office from 1901, (following the assassination of William McKinley) until 1908, he Created the National Park Service as we know it today. He signed into law the Pure Food and Drug Act, Child Labor laws, campaigned for a Healthcare System (which just goes to show you how long that argument's been going on), and introduced sweeping Anti-Trust legislation.

In 1912, after unsuccessfully attempting a nomination via the Republican Party, he formed his own Bullmoose Party and ran on a third-party ticket, against Woodrow Wilson.

Here is an address he made during that campaign, recorded on September 22, 1912 - the title of the address is "Liberty Of The People." Since the sound is a little rough (recording was in its infancy at the time), here is a transcript of that address:

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(President William McKinley - spoke of prosperity despite ominous signs - including an assassins bullet)

This one, I confess, is a bit of a cheat. It was touted for many years as being the actual voice of President McKinley, giving an address at a reception during the Pan-American Exhibition on September 1901. It was given great historic importance because these were purported to be his last words before his assassination during that reception and released shortly after his death as a tribute to the fallen President. Years later it was reported to be the voice of Len Spencer who "offered a faithful reproduction of McKinley's voice" - but the truth was, it probably wasn't McKinley. It's sort of like having Rich Little stand in for Richard Nixon - close, but no cigar. However, since there is doubt about whether this is President McKinley or that of Len Spencer, since Spencer was around and no doubt actually heard McKinley speak, it is probably the next best thing and one hundred and ten years later it isn't all that likely to be disputed.

William McKinley: “My fellow citizens, great statistics indicate that this country is in a state of unexampled prosperity. The figures show that we are furnishing profitable employment to the millions of working men throughout the United States.”

Whether or not the actual words were spoken by McKinley, the fact of the matter was, William McKinley was part of a world that was rapidly vanishing. There was an interesting book written about that period of time called "The Good Years" by Walter Lord. Published in 1960, Lord interviewed a number of people who were still alive at that time and offered keen insights to America in the years just prior to World War One. The Good Years did much to explode the myth that life in America at the turn of the last century was anything but idyllic. McKinley spoke of "profitable employment", it was profitable for companies who fought off unions and employed workers for slave wages. Unions were characterized as groups of grubby anarchists, tossing bombs and inciting riots. Wall Street was the domain of banking interests who influenced the economy at the drop of a whim. Panics were created to inflate values and the gap between classes took panoramic proportions. There are most likely many parallels between the world of 1901 and the world of 2010. The stakes are much higher now, the gaps are as deep and wide as ever before. The world so wistfully portrayed in the turn of the century musical homage, The Music Man did not exist for nearly everyone, much the same as the myth of conspicuous consumption and easy credit is now.

The outside parts are all bright and shiny now - but the guts are just the same.

In 1952 the issues surrounding the Presidential election of that year were a bit different, only because we had the all-pervasive Cold War hanging over America's collective head.

But aside from that, not much has changed. In 1952 we were stuck in Korea, an undeclared war that, as of March 1952 had already claimed some 103,000 lives. A Foreign Policy that was woefully short-sighted. Corruption in Government, and an Internal Security System that many felt left us ripe for "enemy takeover".

In 1952 we were hot in the midst of a Cold War and everyone employed by the Government was under suspicion of taking orders from The Kremlin. It was disclosed that over 16,7000 Federal employees were under investigation by the FBI and the list of "undesirables" was growing.

And of course, the argument was this never would have happened if there was a Republican in the White House. All the country's ills were laid solidly at the foot of Harry Truman and his Commie invested Administration on Capitol Hil.

At least that's the way Republican Senator Everett Dirksen of Illinois put it. Countering the partisan blast was and Oklahoma Senator Robert Kerr, a Democrat who casually reminded listeners that the Republicans were a notoriously backward thinking party and that their hearts were solidly in the 19th Century (some things never change).

The irony was that Everett Dirksen sought to paint the Republicans as a party of Peace, saying that in the previous 90 years (from 1952 which meant roughly 1870), not one single American had died as the result of war fought during a Republican Administration. Oh. Well, I guess the Spanish-American War of 1898 during Republican William McKinley's tenure wasn't actually a war and the sea battle in Manila Bay which lead to U.S. control over the Philippines had nothing to do with war either. Or the land-grab wars involving all the tribes of our indigenous folk during Republican Ulysses S. Grant's Administration in the 1870's wasn't really considered anything remotely war-like. No. Those must've been peace missions gone awry.

At any rate - the arguments are the same and on this episode of American Forum Of The Air, which was broadcast on March 3, 1952, it makes it abundantly clear Politics and the two party system don't really veer much off course, no matter what. We just don't have Joe Stalin and the Kremlin to deal with anymore - they've been traded in for the Taliban and airport security.

The faces and names change. The rhetoric may be a bit more off-the-wall now than it was in 1952, but then consider what people were used to then and it may be the insanity is the same then as it ever was.

That's what politics and looked and sounded like in 1952.