Free Republic

On Presidents’ Day, Americans take a day to recognize the office of the presidency – and to reflect upon the country’s best. FrumForum asked freshman Republican members which president they admired the most, but excluded President Reagan from contention to give the other presidents a fair chance. The fourteen Republican members who responded gave a range of answers, but President Abraham Lincoln came out on top. Interestingly, these freshman congressmen have something in common with President Obama, who has identified Lincoln as his favorite president. Independent voters also agreed – a new Gallup poll shows that Lincoln was their favorite...

The vexatious wave of de facto strikes by absentee Wisconsin public school teachers and Illinois-bound state legislators that has greeted newly-elected Badger State Governor Scott Walker’s vigorous attempts to rein in unsustainable public spending inevitably summons to mind the case of a once-obscure, first-term Massachusetts governor and a more overt public employee strike of nine decades ago. The governor in question: the famously taciturn Silent Cal Coolidge. The work stoppage in question: The Boston Police Strike of 1919.

President Obama's 2012 budget is the numerical embodiment of his State of the Union address - both being systematic distractions from the main, current tasks of governing. President Obama's 2012 budget is the numerical embodiment of his State of the Union address - both being systematic distractions from the main, current tasks of governing. His plan includes, according to Yuval Levin, editor of National Affairs, "no entitlement reform, no tax reform, no significant spending reform, indeed no meaningful change of direction of any sort." All the elements of a status quo budget are present. A dependence on rosy economic assumptions...

The question on the Right for a distressingly long time has been: “Who is the new Reagan?” It is the wrong question. There will never be another Reagan. Just as there will never be another Washington or another Lincoln. Our next great leader will be great not because he or she emulates the greatness of another but because a unique greatness is found within that person. Reagan was not the “new” Taft or the “new” Goldwater. He was Reagan. And that was more than enough. Yet, this question leads us to different styles of leadership or personality. Reagan was one...

Members of the Congress: In meeting the constitutional requirement of informing the Congress upon the state of the Union, it is exceedingly gratifying to report that the general condition is one of progress and prosperity. Here and there are comparatively small and apparently temporary difficulties needing adjustment and improved administrative methods, such as are always to be expected, but in the fundamentals of government and business the results demonstrate that we are going in the right direction. The country does not appear to require radical departures from the policies already adopted so much as it needs a further extension of...

Noted presidential historian David Pietrusza discusses America's most neglected great president, Calvin Coolidge, on the August 13, 2010 Glenn Beck program.

We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those who participated in such a mighty event that we annually observe the fourth day of July. Whatever may have been the impression created...

Silent Cal’s Almanack By David Pietrusza A review: “Restricted immigration is not an offensive but purely a defensive action. It is not adopted in criticism of others in the slightest degree, but solely for the purpose of protecting ourselves. We cast no aspersions on any race or creed, but we must remember that every object of our institutions of society and government will fail unless America be kept American.”[1] This was the straight-forward observation of an American President! But not from someone you would normally have suspected. These words are not tinged with racism or hate, but logic. These words...

David Pietrusza, author of "1920: The Year of the Six Presidents," profiles America's 30th President, Calvin Coolidge, in his book "Silent Cal's Almanack: The Homespun Wisdom of Vermont's Calvin Coolidge." "Silent Cal's Almanack" features a collection of President Coolidge's speeches, examples of his political thinking, and photos, editorial cartoons and campaign memorabilia that spanned his political career. Mr. Pietrusza spoke at the William K. Sanford Library in Loudonville, New York.

The New York Times is doing their best to cover the spending tracks left by President Obama. The op-ed, titled "The Truth About the Deficit" could win gold in mental gymnastics. They bend, twist and contort the facts into a pretty little ball of "blame Bush." I showed you yesterday that George W. Bush was part of the problem, but Obama is pressing the accelerator. The Times claims that the deficit is the result of cutting taxes on the wealthy and they offer this stern warning: "The last thing the government should do is slash spending." History tells us that...

Since the world appears to be self-correcting -- Massachusetts voters have matters in hand, the Supreme Court has come to its senses on the First Amendment, each day brings new revelations that the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was a fraud, and President Obama acknowledges that his agenda has hit a "buzz saw" -- it's safe to detour into the personal. We have a new puppy -- an 8-week-old Golden Retriever who looks (I hope you won't think me immodest) like the pups they pose in catalogues to make you buy down jackets and lawn furniture. She's the...

January 18, 2010, 4:00 a.m. Have Faith in MassachusettsHow Scott Brown’s campaign evokes memories of Calvin Coolidge. By Shawn Macomber Upon learning that Calvin Coolidge had been nominated at the 1920 Republican Convention to run for the vice presidency, Woodrow Wilson’s vice president, Thomas Marshall, sent a pithy wire to the Massachusetts governor: “Please accept my sincere sympathy.” Ninety years later, political junkies were no doubt inclined to tweet similar condolences to Scott Brown at the outset of his quest to win the late Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat. Little was expected of the state senator. Maybe he would get...

After writing Race and Liberty in America: The Essential Reader (2009), I’ve bumped into a few articles that come to the same unorthodox conclusions about individuals I profile in my “race reader.” One such “unorthodox” column appeared in the Wall Street Journal on 25 November 2009. In "Not-So-Silent Cal Wrote with Eloquence,” Ryan Cole lauds Coolidge’s Autobiography as an example of his eloquence. Cole concludes that “Barack Obama isn’t the first man of letters in the White House.” I have been told–but not verified–that Coolidge was the last president to write his own speeches. After reading Coolidge’s writings, published while...

I came across this and it almost blew me away. http://www.archive.org/details/coolidge_1924 Hope the linky thingy works for you. If not just copy and paste into your browser adress bar.

Recently, the new head of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman, gushed that "if you accept the premise, and I do, that the United States is the most powerful country in the world, then Barack Obama is the most powerful writer since Julius Caesar." He skipped right over Calvin Coolidge.

Speech on the Occasion of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Calvin Coolidge July 5, 1926 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania We meet to celebrate the birthday of America. The coming of a new life always excites our interest. Although we know in the case of the individual that it has been an infinite repetition reaching back beyond our vision, that only makes it the more wonderful. But how our interest and wonder increase when we behold the miracle of the birth of a new nation. It is to pay our tribute of reverence and respect to those...

Posted this a couple months back, but I think it's timely given the recent spending spree and Obama's speech. Plus, Coolidge is often forgotten by history and the GOP. He needs some appreciation.

WHY WE DON'T CELEBRATE 'HISTORIANS DAY'February 18, 2009Being gracious winners, this week, liberals howled with delight at George Bush for coming in seventh-to-last in a historians' ranking of the presidents from best to worst. This was pretty shocking. Most liberals can't even name seven U.S. presidents. Being ranked one of the worst presidents by "historians" is like being called "anti-American" by the Nation magazine. And by "historian," I mean a former member of the Weather Underground, who is subsidized by the taxpayer to engage in left-wing political activism in a cushy university job. So congratulations, George Bush! Whenever history professors...

The Republican Party of the 1920's swept into power during a financial crisis. Errors in the Fed’s monetary policy in 1919 in kept rates too low to benefit the sale of Victory bonds. The Fed then tightened excessively due to inflation, creating a financial shock and depression from 1920 to 1921. At that time, the Republican Party viewed increasing tariffs as good policy. Thus, during the sixty seventh Congress, the Emergency Tariff Act of 1921 was passed as a temporary measure until a more comprehensive measure could be drafted. Ultimately, Fordney-McCumber passed in 1922, imposing an ad valorem rate of...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5puwTrLRhmw