Glenn Beck: Calvin Coolidge Still Matters

February 11, 2014February 11, 2014 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

From August 13, 2010, here is the matchless Glenn Beck discussing Calvin Coolidge with David Pietrusza (author of 1920: The Year of Six Presidents, Silent Cal’s Almanack, Calvin Coolidge on the Founders, and his latest, Calvin Coolidge: A Documentary Biography) along with Amity Shlaes (author of The Forgotten Man and Coolidge). These three also examine Coolidge’s record on racial tensions, labor difficulties and how America emerged from very real economic and social turmoil into substantial accomplishment and opportunity.

Glenn Beck: Restoring History: Why Calvin Coolidge Matters Taken alongside the show above are these two video segments, “How is Calvin Coolidge relevant today?” from last year, Glenn Beck discusses what was so good about the 1920s and Coolidge’s part in it through an interview of Amity Shlaes. They take a brief look at the causes of how that decade began with bleak depression and ended with genuine prosperity for everyone. Coolidge would reject the modern economist’s dilemma: either fight inflation and unemployment or cut taxes, either pay down the debt or increase taxes and government spending. Under Coolidge, inflation came down, unemployment became virtually non-existent, expenditures were slashed, taxes were cut four times AND the debt went from $23 to $16 billion in less than six years. Meanwhile, the economic disparities so prevalent during Leftist administrations melted away before actual growth, the freedom and dignity of reward for individual effort and the expansion of affluence felt by all, even the poorest Americans. The Twenties prove everything New Deal apologists and Keynesian economists have been saying for a hundred plus years wrong. Perhaps that is what is so offensive about silenced Cal.

Thanks to Mr. Beck, Mr. Pietrusza and Ms. Shlaes the mythology of a do-nothing Coolidge Presidency is exposed for the vapid revision of history that it is. They remind us that what Coolidge accomplished and the lessons he left us still matter.

On Getting Back to First Principles

December 28, 2013December 29, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / Leave a comment

Calvin Coolidge standing the old Cabinet Room of the West Wing.

Calvin Coolidge standing in the old Cabinet Room, established by President Taft, on the West Wing of the White House.

“We always have the defeatists with us. Washington had them…Lincoln had them…Wilson had them during the war to such an extent that he found it necessary to turn over the conduct of important legislation to Republican leadership. We have them at the present time doing their best to capitalize distress and preaching the overthrow of our system of economics and government. It is these forces more than depression which render our condition critical.

“If we have the courage and vision to maintain our governmental and social structure we can meet all other problems. The forces of discord always work in an insidious way. They often attempt to conceal the peril of their unsound proposals under the claim that they are liberal. When that is analyzed it usually means that they intend to give away the money which someone else has earned. Such a process, once started, is bound to increase until it lands the country in universal bankruptcy and general disintegration. It is a time when the great body of our people of common sense should not be stampeded, but should stand firm. In spite of all declarations to the contrary, of the professions of platforms and candidates, the record of two generations discloses that the safety of the country lies in the success of the principles of the Republican Party” — former President Calvin Coolidge, September 10, 1932.

On the Tyranny of Government Flouting the Law

December 22, 2013December 23, 2013 / gouverneurmorris / 4 Comments

Calvin Coolidge, May 9, 1924

“Ours, as you know, is a government of limited powers. The Constitution confers the authority for certain actions upon the President and the Congress, and specifically prohibits them from taking other actions. This is done to protect the rights and liberties of the people. The Government is limited, on the people are absolute. Whenever the legislative or executive power undertakes to overstep the bounds of its limitations, any person who is injured may resort to the courts for protection and remedy. We do not submit the precious rights of the people to the hazard of a prejudiced and irresponsible political determination, but preserve and protect them by an independent and impartial judicial determination. We do not expose the rights of the weak to the danger of being overcome in the public forum by public uproar, but protect them in the sanctity of the courtroom, where the still, small voice will not fail to be heard. Any attempt to change this method of procedure is an attempt to put the people again in jeopardy of the impositions and the tyrannies from which the first Continental Congress sought to deliver them. The only position that Americans can take is that they are against all despotism whether it emanate from a monarch, from a parliament, or from a mob” — President Coolidge, Philadelphia, September 25, 1924.