The GOP was first on national healthcare

No, seriously, even though there’s a bit of a trick to it.

The first major politician to advocate for a national healthcare system? Theodore Roosevelt.

Of course, when he tried to wrestle back GOP leadership from his disappointing hand-picked successor, William Howard Taft, Taft turned to the GOP old guard bosses to deny him the 1912 nomination.

TR possibly also was the first major-party top-level politician, and certainly the first Republican one, to advocate for a social security system and unemployment insurance.

He also supported a minimum wage law well before it was established at the federal level, and seemed to want one high enough to at least approach modern “living wage” territory. He favored about 80-90 percent of what Britain’s Fabian socialists wanted.

That said, he never could get reconciled to the GOP old guard after his failed 1912 “Bull Moose” progressive run. (And, hated Robert LaFollette for stabbing him in the back during his GOP showdown at the convention.)

One of our two great GOP presidents.