A Second Hand Conjecture

Calvin Coolidge explains taxes

Lance on Jan 24 2008 at 2:00 pm | Filed under: Uncategorized

6 Responses to “Calvin Coolidge explains taxes”

1. on 24 Jan 2008 at 10:05 pm 1MichaelW

   

   That’s a pretty cool find, Lance. I knew Coolidge had a reputation for shrinking government, but I don’t know much else about him. After brushing up at Wikipedia, he reminds me in many ways of Fred. Same sort of federalism; same attitude towards taxes and growth; same attitude towards farm subsidies; even a pretty similar campaigning style (which, ironically, suggests that Coolidge couldn’t be elected today, seeing as how he didn’t want it enough).

   Anyway, good find.

2. on 24 Jan 2008 at 10:41 pm 2ChrisB

   

   Coolidge has always been one of my favorite presidents. I didn’t realize there were any movie recordings of him. Awesome to see.

3. on 24 Jan 2008 at 10:47 pm 3Lance

   

   He had other virtues as well. In an era when his political opponents, Wilson, Roosevelt, had decidedly atavistic views on race, Coolidge was in the fine tradition of early Republicans.

4. on 25 Jan 2008 at 3:07 am 4Roland Dodds

   

   What was with that opening image? It looked awesome, but there is something sinister about having a bunch of elfish women and some goat playing a flute in the background of a presidential speech.

   Maybe LaRouche was right…

5. on 25 Feb 2009 at 4:01 pm 5Tom Donahue

   

   Sounds like a Neocon to me. No wonder he, with the help of Hoover, lead us into the great depression. People fighting against Obama’s reforms ought to listen to this.

6. on 25 Feb 2009 at 7:14 pm 6Lance

   

   A neocon? Do you have any idea what neocon’s believe?

   To place the blame for the Great Depression on Coolidge is ridiculous. Hoover maybe, and you are right, those resisting Obama’s policies should pay attention to Hoover, because Bush and Obama have done their best to go down the Hoover path. Contra myth, Hoover was an activist President whose spending profligacy and big government tendencies Roosevelt campaigned against. Of course, once in power he decided Hoover was right, and proceeded to increase governments role even more. How did that work out?

   Anyway, Coolidge and Hoover could not have been more different, nor are Coolidge’s beliefs similar to neo-cons (who generally favor a large and active state, Coolidge most assuredly did not.) In fact, Neo-con philosophy is far more similar to Roosevelt than Coolidge, from the activist foreign and domestic policies, belief in large social safety nets and government organizations, and a belief that the state is more important than individual freedoms. Coolidge opposed all that.

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