Posted on 02/25/2013 4:10:30 AM PST by Kaslin
For George H.W. Bush firing Reagan people see:
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/bonus-video/presidents-unity-bush/
http://spectator.org/archives/2012/04/12/the-mitt-hw-bush-problem
Wow! I considered myself politically aware in the 1980s, and yet I don’t remember a thing about this putsch. Thank you.
It goes back further. Reagan surrounded himself with Bushies and Country Club pubbies from Day 1. The conservative movement was betrayed and screamed bloody murder, but most of us couldn't understand why. We were blinded by a personality cult and we got used by The Establishment, as always.
I think I understand Reagan’s move. He had run for President in 1976 and lost after he was portrayed as too extreme for the electorate. 1980 was only 16 years after Barry Goldwater lost in a landslide, and the common wisdom was that he lost because he was portrayed as a conservative extremist. Reagan’s likeability came through strongly in his 1980 campaign, but I think he felt that he had to bring in Bush and some of the Country Club Republicans (I regard them as today’s RINOs) in order to close the deal.
He may have been right in 1980; he was too much of a gentleman to dump Bush in 1984, and unfortunately by 1988 I understand that he was fading mentally and not in a position to back another successor.
When you look at Pappy (George H.W.) Bush’s record it isn’t inspiring with respect to conservatism.
The S&L bailout.
Failure to prosecute Democrat Speaker of the House Jim Wright and House Majority Whip Tony Coehlo who resigned from office. Both were heavily implicated in the S&L scandals.
Failure to prosecute the Keating Five, five US Senators deeply involved in influence peddling and accepting questionable contributions from actors in the S&L scandals. Four of the Keating Five were Democrats. The fifth was John McCain. McCain’s political career should have ended then but the Republican establishment protected him.
Breaking his “No New Taxes” pledge. Essentially he was forced to do this because of the increase in deficit spending cause by the S&L bailout. If he had let the S&L’s go through normal bankruptcy, instead of pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into bailing out the investors and Wall Street banks holding the bad loans, raising taxes would not have been an issue.
Failure to secure the southern border. The “one time” amnesty during the Reagan administration was supposed to have been followed with tight border enforcement. Pappy Bush, like his son George W. later, failed to aggressively seal the border allowing millions of illegals to stream across the border and effectively giving Bill Clinton and excuse for lax border enforcement during his 8 years.
NAFTA and WTO. Bush, the globalist, was a big proponent of opening up the US market to other nations by ending tariffs and quotas. NAFTA negotiations began in the Bush administration and the agreement was signed under Clinton. Ross Perot was proved correct in talking about the “great sucking sound” these trade agreements would cause as US jobs were sucked out of the country. We’ve seen the deindustrialization of the US, and skyrocketing trade deficits, since Pappy Bush’s vision of free trade was implemented. The transfer of US manufacturing to China, resulting from the elimination of tariffs and quotas, has also funded the rise of China to superpower status and a great future strategic threat to the US. Since the Bush I administration millions of US jobs have been lost, the US industrial infrastructure has been gutted, and the disposable income of the average American household has declined, while income disparity has increased. All-in-all his trade policies were a disaster for the nation and the average working person.
Desert Storm. The US provided the mercenary army to force Sadaam Hussein’s troops out of Kuwait and protect Saudi Arabia from invasion. The Saudi’s repaid us by funding Al Qaeda, and other Islamic terrorist organizations committed to destroying the US. The Saudi’s have also funded the building of thousands of mosques in the US and Muslim outreach efforts to convert prisoners in US prisons to Islam.
He signed the Immigration Act of 1990 which increased legal immigration by 40%, most of these immigrants from 3rd would countries.
He signed the extension of the Clean Air Act. He signed the Americans with Disabilities Act. He appointed David Souter to the Supreme Court.
Bush I was a corporatist globalist statist having more in common with the Democrats in Congress than the conservatives in his own party.
Tariffs went to historically high levels, then Hoover raised reserve requirements and popped the stock bubble. Coolidge was indeed the good old days.
Thanks Kaslin.
[snip] His wife, Grace Goodhue Coolidge, recounted that a young woman sitting next to Coolidge at a dinner party confided to him she had bet she could get at least three words of conversation from him. Without looking at her he quietly retorted, “You lose.” [/snip]
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/presidents/calvincoolidge
Coolidge never really chose Hoover as his successor. After Coolidge announced over a year before the 1928 election that he would not be running for another term, he essentially kept hands off the GOP nomination process, while Hoover worked at getting that nomination. Coolidge made it clear that he supported Hoover during his campaign vs. Democrat Al Smith, but his role was small. During his last year in office, as he sensed that Hoover would succeed him, Coolidge fretted privately that a Hoover administration would lead to bigger government, deficit spending, and an economic downturn, reversing the achievements of Coolidge's administration. In that, Coolidge was absolutely right.
Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon would’ve been a better successor to Coolidge, although ultimately I wish Coolidge could’ve served one last term.
I don't think Mellon was ever interested in the presidency. By 1928, he was rather elderly, especially for that era when life expectancy was much lower than it is today. Mellon did a good job as the long-time Treasury secretary, spanning the terms of Harding, Coolidge, and (partly) Hoover. He can be considered as the father of what later became "supply side economics."
As it turned out, BTW, Coolidge died of natural causes three months before Hoover's term was completed, and very concerned about the future of the country under President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Having someone not interested in the Presidency is precisely the person you want in service. Considering that Mellon continued serving at Treasury under Hoover, and concluding as Ambassador to the Court of St. James (England) showed that he was able to serve (and he lived until 1937, so could’ve served 2 terms, had 1929 been a Panic instead of a Depression).
-— I recall reading someone, explaining when the depression actually ended, and they said, when Roosevelts heart stopped beating. ——
Years ago I was talking to a neighbor who grew up in the thirties. He remembered his dad saying that someone should finish Roosevelt’s career. It must have been intensely frustrating then, as it is today.
Coolidge was the best POTUS of the 20th Century.
If it wasn’t for that RINO POS Hoover it WOULD have been a Panic. Still would’ve taken a beating in 1930 but things would have been looking up by ‘32.
And that bastard FDR would be an obscure former NY Governor and his fugly dyke wife probably wouldn’t even have her own wikipedia page.
“Coolidge was the best POTUS of the 20th Century.”
Have to disagree with you on that one, FRiend.
Reagan was the best POTUS ever.
Not on shrinking the government, unfortunately. One wonders if Reagan had a GOP House if spending would’ve been controlled. Dubya had it, and we know how that turned out.
Have to disagree with you on that one, FRiend. Reagan was the best POTUS ever. <<
I have to agree with Impy on this one.
No doubt Reagan was the greatest President of my lifetime, but Coolidge was the best President of the 20th century, hands down. Reagan was a terrific champion for conservative values but he made some mistakes like buying into the Democrats 1986 "one time only amnesty that will secure the border" BS, created another mammoth federal agency (Dept. of Veterans Affairs), and signed bills that had too much wasteful spending, ultimately growing the federal government after 8 years.
Coolidge was almost an excellent champion of conservative values (sadly forgotten by history), but didn't have those negatives in his presidency. Coolidge closed the immigration floodgates with the Immigration Act of 1924, and during his Presidency from 1923-1929, he greatly reduced the size and scope of the federal government. Federal spending remained flat during Coolidge's administration, allowing one-fourth of the federal debt to be retired. The Revenue Act of 1924 reduced income tax rates and eliminated all income taxation for some two million people. Coolidge also represents a now long forgotten time (even during Reagan's day) where the President and the executive branch saw their role as executing the laws of the land, not making them. Coolidge said it his job first and foremost to use his veto to stop bad legislation from becoming law, not to lobby for new federal laws.
A model conservative. Reagan based many of his policies on Coolidge, but was never able to go far enough (partly because the RATs controlled the House in the 80s and partly because Reagan bought into too many broken promises from Congress)
All valid points, BB.
I’ll just say this: I would gay marry Ronald Reagan.
Don’t forget that Reagan won the Cold War, which would still be going if he hadn’t been elected, given his successors.
You're not far off. Coolidge used to buy food for state dinners at the nearest Piggly Wiggly grocery store to save taxpayers money.
I like Burger King. A Whopper with cheese and large fries and that’s a hearty dinner for me.
BK > McDonalds, no contest
Fries, shakes, everything. I don’t eat fast food meat but most people I know like their burgers better.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.