When President Theodore Roosevelt invited Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House — the dinner took place in October 1901 — Woodrow Wilson was furious, and reacted by using hateful and inappropriate racial epithets. Wilson’s vulgar language was unacceptable by the social standards of his era, as Gautam Mukunda explains:
He discouraged Black students from attending Princeton and segregated the (previously integrated) federal workforce.
Wilson’s racism was perhaps the most obvious feature of his leadership of the Progressive movement, but it was not the only one. Other features of his career and his policies including violating the free speech rights of millions of Americans: During WW1, anyone who opposed Wilson’s actions could be arrested for merely expressing an opinion.
In fact, however, Wilson’s record as President was disastrous, and his failures were the foreseeable products of his own shortcomings, not difficult circumstances or bad luck.
Wilson’s attitudes and actions were an extension of Progressivism and of the Democratic Party. Wilson was supported and elected by a movement and by a party that gave in to its deepest desires.
As a candidate, Wilson was an impressive speaker and writer, giving the impression that he was wise and intelligent, and that he would make thoughtful decisions. The record of his choices, however, proved problematic.
But his flaws stretch beyond bigotry. Understanding how someone like him could become President illuminates a common but all too often devastating mistake made in leader selection — picking someone based on their perceived talent instead of their real record. This creates the potential for a high impact, but often disastrous, leader.
Wilson was shockingly unprepared. He had never been employed in any kind of business. He had no military experience. His one attempt at real, for-profit activity, had been to try to start a law firm. It went bankrupt in less than a year.
Wilson was the least experienced person ever elected President. When he received the nomination his only political experience was 18 months as Governor of New Jersey. He was a darling of Progressives because of his attempted reforms at Princeton. He passed significant reforms as Governor, but so alienated the legislature’s Democrats — his own party — that they worked to elect Republicans in the 1911 legislative election just to harm Wilson.
His racism and his disregard for individual political liberty made Woodrow Wilson a rockstar among the Progressives and in the Democratic Party. A small handful of Democrats understood Wilson’s lack of leadership skills, but the majority of people in his party were unaware of Wilson’s poor management habits.
Wilson’s rhetorical skills and popularity with Progressives nonetheless made him a candidate for the Democratic nomination. Although he was not expected by anyone — including himself — to win, after 45 ballots a series of backroom maneuvers threw him the nomination.
“The bigotry that stained his presidency” was only one of Wilson’s flaws. “Wilson’s Presidency was tumultuous” and included
raids by his Attorney General, A. Mitchell Palmer, which interned thousands of people without trials. The most important events, however, were unquestionably America’s entry into the First World War and Wilson’s role in the peace negotiations afterwards. His failed attempt to secure Senate ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and American entry into the League of Nations crippled the League and the post-war settlement, setting the stage for the Second World War.
Woodrow Wilson was not only a bitter racist; he not only disregarded individual political liberty; he also was temperamental and highly defensive about any form of criticism or dissent regarding his own views or actions. Not only did he reject criticism from the Republican Party, but he reacted in extreme ways to even the slightest questioning from within his own Democratic Party or from within his own Progressivist movement. His ego was large and fragile; he was a “prima donna.”
