I have always admired Coolidge and thought he was underrated. If you read some of his speeches and statements you can tell he was a very smart man who spoke and wrote with extraordinary eloquence about freedom, the necessity of keeping government small, and the belief in American exceptionalism.
I suppose today we would say Coolidge was not very telegenic. I have only seen video of him or heard recordings of his voice a few times. Here he looks rather old but he was only about 52 at the time. Still when you compare his ideas to those of the current one in the White House, Coolidge sounds 1000 times better!
What’s funny is that people raved about how good he sounded on the radio. Considering that the transition from horns to cone speakers occurred in 1927-29, this isn’t surprising. His rather high, nasal voice was very intelligible.
One of the most despicable things Roosevelt ever said was in an address in 1944—I’ve heard the recording only once—in which he said something like “if we were to return to the so-called normalcy of the 1920s, it would represent the triumph of the Fascism we are now fighting.” I.e., when Harding and Coolidge dismantled most of the Wilsonian War Socialism, they were like Hitler.
Coolidge made another DeForest Phonofilm in May or June of 1925. It’s easy to distinguish from the 1924 campaign film, because it was shot against the ground-floor doorways on the South Portico. The remarks in that film are almost entirely taken from his Inaugural Address.
EVERYONE should read, first of all, Coolidge’s Address at Philadelphia, July 4, 1926, which is explicitly ANTI-PROGRESSIVE, and his Inaugural Address, March 4, 1925.
I remember in my school years a few dismissive mentions of Coolidge and that was it. Now the little tykes are probably so busy learning about Che and other great People’s Heroes that they have no time for American Presidents at all... let alone conservative ones.