“Weaned on a pickle” was how the acid-tongued [Princess] Alice Roosevelt Longworth described Calvin Coolidge, America’s president from 1923 to 1929. Popular historians have been no kinder. Many blame his laissez-faire approach for prompting the Wall Street crash of 1929.

Implicit in this view is the presumption that only interventionist central government can help America recover from economic shock. Mr Coolidge’s hallmark was distrust of government. He saw it as an entity that uses “despotic exactions” (taxes) that sap individual initiative and prosperity across the board. American readers who believe intervention to be a good thing are likely to blanch at a controversial new biography of Coolidge by Amity Shlaes, an American columnist and historian of the Depression. However, if they are brave enough to read on they will also discover a presidency of remarkable achievement that has received too little attention. During Coolidge’s tenure American debt fell by one-third, the tax rate by half and unemployment collapsed.

When less led to more: America’s 30th president has been much misunderstood

Coolidge, by Amity Shlaes (Google Books)

Calvin Coolidge – White House | Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation | History | IPL | Congressional Bio Guide

Also see Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson

Yeah!

“More unity” and “bring us all together” sounds fascist.

How’s all that working out? Rubes.

“The real conflict in political theory … is not between individualism and community. It’s between voluntary association and coerced association.”
David Boaz

Ozymandias

Unfortunately, it seems that the future Aldous Huxley predicted in 1932, in Brave New World, is arriving early. Mockery, truculence, and minimalist living are best, then enjoy the decline. However, we do need a Revolving Door Tax (RDT) and to prosecute politicians and staff and their “family and friends” who profit from insider trading.