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who was the last "good" president?

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The Wrath

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Who, in your opinion, was the last president to actually have a net positive impact on the United States? I think we can all agree that Obama and Bush do not qualify.

I want to say Reagan, but I don't know for sure if I believe it. He deregulated a lot of the economy and stood strong against the USSR, but he also mixed religion with politics and had some major foreign policy gaffes. At any rate, I think he is the closest to "good" that we've had during my lifetime (since 1982). Other than that, I think the most recent one that comes even close to qualifying is Ike, though I don't really know that much about his presidency. Maybe Truman, if for no other reason, because he had the moral courage to end the war, rather than let it drag on.

Edited by The Wrath
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Reagan did some good things. Sometimes I am too harsh to him because of the official induction of the religious right into the Republican party. However, I'd say overall he was a negative.

Calvin Coolidge comes to mind.

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I don't know much about Coolidge. What did he do that was good?

From what I know of him, I think Coolidge was probably the best of the last century. He was more of a laissez faire type president who apparently reduced the size of government. Here is a vintage 1924 speech on youtube by him in which he endorses the cutting of public expenses and the idea that each individual should have the right to the fruits of his own efforts:

Very common sense, but, more importantly, very American in the original sense of the word.

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Gerald Ford had his moments. I like Ford precisely because he wasn't elected. Running for President is such a monumental task that virtually everybody who attempts it in the modern world is infected with power-lust and some form of narcissistic personality disorder. Without that, the motivation just isn't there. (I think this is what did in Fred Thompson in 2008.) Ford, since he was effectively appointed to the Presidency, was relatively free of those personality issues. He was more like a 'normal' American than the people we generally see in the Oval Office, and that was a good thing. Prior to Ford, I'd have to go with Coolidge too.

Coolidge and Eisenhower shared a similar flaw. While they both reined in government somewhat in the wake of earlier massive expansions (Coolidge from the Progressives, Eisenhower from the New Deal), they failed to challenge the fundamental premises that underlay those expansions and thus helped turn them into bipartisan orthodoxy going forward.

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Coolidge and Eisenhower shared a similar flaw. While they both reined in government somewhat in the wake of earlier massive expansions (Coolidge from the Progressives, Eisenhower from the New Deal), they failed to challenge the fundamental premises that underlay those expansions and thus helped turn them into bipartisan orthodoxy going forward.

Considering Coolidge was the President of the United States, we should be overwhelmed with joy that he did anything positive, principled or unprincipled.

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Guest Erik Martinsen

Judging by what I know so far (which is quite a bit), Calvin Coolidge is my favorite president. I've read Coolidge's autobiography, and found that I strongly identify with his type of personality (no doubt an "INTJ"). It's a source of wisdom, and a goldmine of great quotes.

This quote describes the very core essence of Objectivism:

“Things are so ordered in this world that those who violate its law cannot escape the penalty. Nature is inexorable. If men do not follow the truth they cannot live.”

—Calvin Coolidge

This sounds like something John Galt would have said:

“The man who builds a factory builds a temple, the man who works there worships there, and to each is due, not scorn and blame, but reverence and praise.”

—Calvin Coolidge

This sounds like something Ayn Rand would have said:

“To live under the American Constitution is the greatest political privilege that was ever accorded to the human race.”

—Calvin Coolidge

Spoken like a true laissez-faire President:

“Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration has been minding my own business.”

—Calvin Coolidge

He demonstrates his understanding of Americanism:

“After all, the chief business of the American people is business. They are profoundly concerned with producing, buying, selling, investing and prospering in the world.”

—Calvin Coolidge

Here he reflects very wisely on the Declaration of Independence:

“About the Declaration there is a finality that is exceedingly restful. It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning cannot be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction cannot lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the revolutionary fathers.”

—Calvin Coolidge

Last but not least, he had an excellent type of dry humor:

As Vice-President, Coolidge and his vivacious wife Grace were invited to quite a few parties, where the legend of "Silent Cal" was born. It was from this time most of the jokes and anecdotes involving Coolidge originate. Although Coolidge was known to be a skilled and effective public speaker, in private he was a man of few words and was therefore commonly referred to as "Silent Cal." A possibly apocryphal story has it that Dorothy Parker, seated next to him at a dinner, said to him, "Mr. Coolidge, I've made a bet against a fellow who said it was impossible to get more than two words out of you." His famous reply: "You lose."

Incidentally, here's an great portrait of Gerald Ford. He looks like what I'd expect Gail Wynand to look like.

GeraldFord_official.jpg

Edited by Erik Martinsen
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  • 2 weeks later...

I like Coolidge, too. But then I think about the bubble in the 1920s. One might argue that he should have seen it coming. Or did he? Maybe this is the reason he did not run a second time. But then he is guilty of not doing anything to prevent the bubble from further inflation.

Hoover was President when it finally burst. But to Mises the bubble was visible much earlier. So how would you evaluate Coolidge given your knowledge of the bubble?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Rothbard in "America's Great Depression" says that Harding and Coolidge had a policy of low interest rates which helped the bubble to inflate.

Edited by Bastian Hayek
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Reagan thought the world of Harding. Harding was the one that, following the academic ideology of Wilson and his depression, basically told the US people that it's gonna suck, but nothing the government does will help. I think it was about nine months later that the US emerged from that depression and the roaring 20's were born. Died in office. Might be the only non-progressive US President in over 100 years.

Edited by SD26
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haha.. but that wouldn't be very laissez-faire would it? :P

Depends on what you mean with laissez-faire. If you want to restore a system of laissez-faire capitalism you do not sit and watch while the FED is destroying your economy. If it is true that they made interest rates incredibly low and thus helped to destroy the economy it is even worse.

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I like Coolidge, too. But then I think about the bubble in the 1920s. One might argue that he should have seen it coming. Or did he? Maybe this is the reason he did not run a second time. But then he is guilty of not doing anything to prevent the bubble from further inflation.

Hoover was President when it finally burst. But to Mises the bubble was visible much earlier. So how would you evaluate Coolidge given your knowledge of the bubble?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Rothbard in "America's Great Depression" says that Harding and Coolidge had a policy of low interest rates which helped the bubble to inflate.

The severity of the Great Depression was a consequence of destructive economic policies instituted after Coolidge. It was a result of the interventions of Hoover, FDR and Congress that aggravated and prolonged a typical recession--which have occurred dozens of times before Coolidge--into a decade long catastrophe. Coolidge is no more guilty of the Great Depression than previous presidents were for the recessions that occurred in their time. Moreover, at the time of Coolidge, economists were still debating the causes of business cycles and the Austrian economists have just recently published their business cycle theory (which was not really fleshed out until after Hayek, anyways). As such, Coolidge can hardly be blamed for not being well-versed in technical economic theory written in the Austrian language.

Furthermore, it was not the "bubble" of the 1920's that set the stage for the Great Depression. At best you can argue that the Fed's policy set in motion a boom-bust cycle (of course), as it always does. But that did not determine the severity of the Depression at all. You are seriously mistaken if you think that it was the low interest rate of the 1920's that determined the Depression's depth and duration. It did not have to be so bad--even with the Fed's inflationary policy in the 1920's. The government could have responded to the recession of 1929-1930 as they did in previous recessions: cut the budget, rein-in spending, keep their hands-off and wait for the economy sort itself out. But of course they didn't. And no, the boom in the 1920's was not fake or false. It was real economic growth with enormous beneficial consequences for the nation. And it was not undone by any of Coolidge's doing. During the 1930's when the government raised taxes, kept wages high, practically banned international trade, destroyed the gold standard, passed the New Deal, and so on, they were certainly not valiantly trying to save the economy from Coolidge's faults or omissions. They were destroying it.

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