Glenn Beck: Calvin Coolidge Still Matters

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.

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.