Calvin Coolidge

Calvin Coolidge was one of the smartest men ever to serve in the Presidency. He was, however, a quiet man and refused to "rise to the bait" of the Democrats and media who besieged him constantly during his administration. Consequently, he is often portrayed -- due in no small part to the liberals who write modern history textbooks -- as a weak President. That simply was not the case.

Coolidge inherited the Presidency when Harding died. While Harding was generally a moderate, he did cut taxes dramatically. This angered the progressives, who saw it as a dismantling of Wilson's so-called legacy -- which, to be fair, it pretty much was. Anyhow, after Harding died, the press and the Democrats immediately set to attacking his memory by conjuring up a series of supposed scandals, now that Harding was no longer alive to defend himself. Their hope was that this stench would cling to Coolidge as the inheritor of Harding's legacy, causing him to become indecisive. Coolidge, however, was a businessman and nobody's fool.

Coolidge strengthened the capitalist approach to governance and the country continued to grow and prosper. In the end, the only thing the DemoPress could do was to retroactively blame him for the Great Depression, which was both unfair and untrue. No one factor led to the Depression; it was a miasma years in the making, and the long range effect of Wilson's policies were no small part of the problem. Regardless, generations of school children have been taught that Coolidge was a weak bogeyman, an example of what happens when someone not ordained by the High And Mighty Elites is thrust into power. It's all balderdash, just as much as what they say about Trump is today.

History, however, has a way of self-correcting. More and more people are coming to realize that Coolidge was not a weak President, he was simply undemonstrative. It is one of the great ironies of American politics that the man whose policies are most closely paralleled by those of Calvin Coolidge is Donald Trump -- unquestionably the most demonstrative President since Andrew Jackson. Unlike Coolidge, Trump hits back. He revels in it, in fact. And it sure is fun to watch.