Theodore Roosevelt: SLE/LIE

"The worst lesson that can be taught a man is to rely upon others and to whine over his sufferings."

"Is America a weakling, to shrink from the work of the great world powers? No! The young giant of the West stands on a continent and clasps the crest of an ocean in either hand. Our nation, glorious in youth and strength, looks into the future with eager eyes and rejoices as a strong man to run a race."

The 26th US President, and the first one to bear that surname, Teddy Roosevelt (1858-1919) was likely closest to SLE in many of his qualities, but had many "rational" and forward-looking traits lacking in a "pure" SLE like Andrew Jackson.

The first sign of the type is his lifelong interest in rough physical exercises and boxing. Despite being naturally a sickly child, he maintained a steady regime of exercise and found a boxing coach to train him when bullied by older boys. Even as president, he boxed in the White House until he lost the sight in one eye, then took up jiu-jitsu; he took real pleasure in blood sports. With the beginning of the Spanish–American War in 1898, Roosevelt resigned as Assistant Secretary of the Navy and went to see battle, where he performed effectively, with Roosevelt personally chanring up hills. He preferred to be called "Colonel Roosevelt" to the end of his life. Such attraction to combat and considering it to be so meaningful is very socionically telling.

Contemporaries reached for metaphors of overwhelming physical presence to describe him. Edith Wharton found him radioactive, Foraker called him a steam-engine in trousers, Henry Adams "a swift and awful Chicago express", Watson thought of TNT, Burroughs of an electric bombshell. Adams also called him pure act, borrowing the scholastics' phrase for God. During his presidential campaign, when shot by a delusional saloonkeeper, he, realizing that no vital organs were touched, declined to go to hospital immediately and instead delivered a 90-minute speech — quite a SLE thing to do (as opposed to the more valetudinarian types like LSE). Post-presidency, he went on a safari in Africa, where his group killed a large number of animals. In his defense, he claimed, "I can be condemned only if the existence of the National Museum, the American Museum of Natural History, and all similar zoological institutions are to be condemned."

He wasn't averse to using force as a stateman, either. He used military dominance to ensure Panama successfully revolted and achieved independence in 1903, allowing the building of the Panama Canal where the US wanted it. A dedicated and ruthless imperialist, he brutally suppressed the indepence insurgency in Philippines.

A cartoon depicting Roosevelt intimidating Colombia

All this creates a very Jackson-like impression. Why, then, the strong LIE accent? Roosevelt was far more pragmatic and future-minded, being more "rational" than the average SLE. Their economic policies are telling: Jackson destroyed the Second Bank and put nothing in its place, leaving the currency system to fend for itself. Roosevelt's antitrust program was about what industrial structure ought to be. He filed 44 antitrust suits against major industries like railroads, beef, oil, and tobacco to regulate corporate behavior, also initiating landmark legal assaults against John D. Rockefeller’s oil empire  but he was explicit that he was only against "bad trusts," and his main argument against monopolies was very Te-minded: he stressed their inefficiency. When coal miners went on strike, Roosevelt threatened them with federal troops, but also brokered an accord which improved their pay, stating: "My action on labor should always be considered in connection with my action as regards capital, and both are reducible to my favorite formula—a square deal for every man." In responce to complaints about high railroad rates, Roosevelt reached a compromise that gave the government comission the power to replace existing rates with "reasonable" maximum rates, allowing railroads to appeal to federal courts. He was future-minded enough to realize the importance of nature conservation, protecting 230 million acres of public land and creating the US Forest Service. Neither Jackson nor Roosevelt were particularly theoretically-minded, but Roosevelt was definitely the more intellectual of the two, reading a book a day at his peak. Jackson was famous for his ethically rigid grudges, while Roosevelt was far more flexible in the matter — even his most famous rivalry, with William Howard Taft, an once-close ally who considered Roosevelt too rough and radical, eventually ended in reconciliation shortly before Roosevelt's death.