H.L. Mencken demurred on the bluff-democrat image of Teddy Roosevelt, who he said, 

for all his fluent mastery of democratic counter-words, democratic gestures and all the rest of the armamentarium of the mob-master, had no such faith in his heart of hearts. 

He didn’t believe in democracy; he believed simply in government.  His remedy for all the great pangs and longings of existence was not a dispersion of authority, but a hard concentration of authority. 

He was not in favor of unlimited experiment; he was in favor of a rigid control from above, a despotism of inspired prophets and policemen.”*

To economist Donald J. Boudreaux, applying the description to our current president, it seems “as if Mr. Obama is already channeling T.R. – and, in doing so, is endangering our freedom and our prosperity.”