Thanks for the note Sarah.  I'm not sure if I'll be able to explain this well in a Moodle message, but I'll give it a try.

First, I think you have it correct.  McKinley and TR were Republicans and Wilson was a Democrat.

But, imperialism was practiced by the United States, whether the Democrats or Republicans were in power.  Of course, McKinley and Roosevelt were pro-imperialism, especially when running against Democrat Wm Jennings Bryan (as we heard in the video in class).  Wilson comes to power primarily as an accident, because of the split between the domestically conservative Republican Taft and the domestically progressive TR, who ran as a Progressive (Bull Moose).  This split allowed Wilson, a Southerner (born in Virginia) to become president.

Then, you used the phrase democratic capitalism, which ALL of them supported.  They were, after all, reformers... not radicals who supported socialism.  I hope you aren't getting confused with the lower case democratic as meaning Democratic political party.

Domestically, TR was progressive (much more than he was in his foreign policy), and his stance/plan was referred to as New Nationalism (not the most helpful wording).  Wilson, also a progressive, differed from TR with his support for New Freedom.

When you mentioned progressivism being synonymous with reformers, you are correct.  Then you added imperialists to that list, and that is where the confusion may be.  It's hard for us today to imagine imperialists as progressives.  They almost seem like opposites, but historically it was a paradox.  And the main reason behind this seeming paradox was the common belief in American Exceptionalism.  Leaders at that time truly believed it.  Today, many students (and even Obama, in the forum materials) have been taught that the U.S.A. is NOT exceptional, and that we are actually a "bad guy" in the world.  So, for us today, imperialism simply seems "mean", yet at that time, leaders believed that our democracy was the best system of government the world had available to it; moreover, we should do our part to bring this system to other peoples, who suffered under monarchs or military dictators or other "lesser" forms of rule.

Your comments about Wilson moving from New Freedom towards New Nationalism are correct, especially when WWI began.  He will be responsible for consolidating enormous amounts of power and centralization to the federal government during his second term.

Lastly, referring to yesterday's conservative Democrats as today's conservative Republicans CAN be helpful, but only if you made the important qualifications. Too many people want to say yesterday's racist Democrats are today's racist Republicans.  That would not be very accurate.  The 19th Century (1800's) Democratic Party was indeed the party of overt racism and the KKK (in its hatred of Republican Lincoln).  But as we've seen, American nativism means our entire country has issue with race, among other things.

Your last line needs clarification.  All three (McKinley, TR and Wilson) were imperialist minded politicians who supported our system of government, democratic capitalism.  The Republican TR and Democrat Wilson were domestically progressive, much more so than Republicans McKinley and Taft.  All of them were more or less conservative/nativistic racially, Wilson being the worst of the bunch (segregating governmental offices in Washington D.C., support for the movie Birth of a Nation, etc.)

Hope this helps a little, but I'd be glad to clarify more either in more messages, a phone call, or in person, either before or after class or at office hours.