If we look back to the time during which Calvin Coolidge was president, we can say that he was one of the most libertarian in US presidential history.
What was so great about him?
Coolidge truly was the President of “doing nothing”. He deregulated the market, he lowered the national debt and he was against intervention in the private sector. When Coolidge left office there was less debt than when he started his term.
He had a true conservative monetary policy and was an advocate for small government. Under his policy, the economic growth was so substantial that there was a huge budget surplus that led to lower taxes, a shrinking government and a bigger private sector.
Some of his policies included:
– Despite being born on a farm, he was against farm subsidies.
– He did support immigration, but was also in favor of controlled borders. He was not very popular among some minorities but had well-known support by the Irish. He wrote a letter to Congress criticizing the anti-Japanese immigration law.
– Coolidge vetoed many bills passed by Congress, and that’s why he didn’t make many new friends from any of the 2 chambers.
– It was his goal to cut government spending.
His Secretary of State signed the Pact of Paris (Or: Kellogg-Briand Pact).
Coolidge was more of an isolationist than most other Presidents of the United States.
One of the negative things I would point out was his intervention in South America. He didn’t leave Haiti and he sent the Navy to intervene in Nicaragua. South America became more and more dependent on the United States under the Coolidge presidency. While Coolidge was president the bank J.P Morgan financially supported Mussolini’s rise in Italy. The American ambassador in Italy even wrote a piece in Mussolini’s biography. Sure, Coolidge didn’t do this by himself, but it happened during his presidency.
Everything considered, he was not a bad president. He may have had his flaws but he wasn’t like any other Republican to come thereafter. It is hard to find a guy like Coolidge in today’s Republican Party and it looks like the GOP is about to change again with Donald Trump as a frontrunner. A similar guy to Coolidge would be Rand Paul, who is still my favorite for 2016. You can find politicians like Coolidge in the Libertarian Party; the bad part about this is that it is nearly impossible for a third party to win a presidential election.
If we look at international politics we won’t find much more of that as well. People are calling for a solution and change. Democratic socialism, which is the opposite of Mr. Coolidge’s platform, failed in Europe. There will be no Coolidge type of guy in the near future, not in America and not in Europe, and definitely not anywhere else.
It would definitely benefit the American people to get a Coolidge type of president. Obama and Bush ruined the country as we know.
* Editor: the text above has been reviewed for readability, but not content. The opinion(s) reflected therein are those of the author, and not of the BeingLibertarian.com website or Being Libertarian LLC.
Sandro Waechter
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