What was the Bull Moose Party?

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The Bull Moose Party, officially the Progressive Party, was a renegade social group in the United States that supported former president Theodore Roosevelt as its democratic nominee in 1912; the group's actual title and broad ideals were resurrected 12 years later. A National Republican Progressive League was founded in 1911 by Wisconsin Senator Robert M. La Follette to oppose the established liberalism of the mainstream Republican Party, which was headed by President William Howard Taft. The very next year, the gathering renamed itself the Progressive Party, and on August 7, 1912, it held a conference in which it selected Roosevelt for the head of state and Governor Hiram W. Johnson of California for vice president, as well as calling for a modification of the ideological electing system and a forceful cultural legislation scheme.


What was the Bull Moose Party?


Bull Moose, the group's famous moniker, was inspired by Roosevelt's frequent use of words 'power and vigor' to characterize himself. He ran an enthusiastic race, and on his route to deliver a talk in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he was murdered by an insane person. He continued with his speech, informing the gathering that he had a gunshot in his torso but that 'killing a Bull Moose requires more than that.' The Bull Moose party received around a quarter of the support. As a result of this schism, Woodrow Wilson's Republicans ran unsuccessfully to the Democrats. After the Bull Moose Party disbanded, the Republicans reformed 4 years afterward.