Coolidge signed into law the last true restrictive and conservative immigration laws. He supported and signed into law legislation ending mass immigration.
With the possible exception of Eisenhower, Coolidge was the last good Republican president on immigration. Nixon can be forgiven to an extent in that the effects of Ted Kennedy’s deceptive 1965 Immigration Reform Act (which undid those signed into law by Coolidge, and reignited mass immigration) were not yet apparent. Reagan had some good things to say about border control, but he was a misguided romantic on immigration in general. And the Bushes? Well, they were both terrible, with W being as bad as any Democrat on the issue.
We need a Coolidge today when it comes to immigration. If this current wave of mass immigration is not cut off, then it is over for us. Admittedly, even if all immigration ended tomorrow, the demographic momentum of the the past 30 years of pro-Democrat immigration would continue to change the nation in a bad way for conservatives and Republicans.
But if immigration were drastically reduced, then at least we’d have a fighting chance demographically speaking.
People lightly toss around the RINO label for people who are actually just behind the times. High tariff and open borders was standard Republicanism that long ago. Cooledge must have had his points, for Reagan hung his portrait in the oval office.