06-11-2015, 05:13 AM
(06-10-2015, 11:50 PM)RICHMONDBENGAL_07 Wrote: Coolidge really? Doesn't surprise me I guess. Carnegie and Schwab were his personal heroes, and he did have a booming economy in the short run, but at the expense of the lower classes. All of his social programs were negative (with the exception of some minor road building) including his refusal to work on behalf of black Americans and their civil rights, and his strict and discriminatory immigration policy. Completely off his radar were the millions of American poor, elderly, urban blacks and American farm workers. It was said that "he was a president for the 'haves' and not the 'have-nots'." His small town simplistic self-help philosophy were inadequate for the 20th century. Though signs of trouble in the stock market were evident by the late 20's he did nothing to avert the crisis. Instead, at the last moment, he announced his decision not to seek a second full term. So in retirement he watched the economy come apart under his successor Herbert Hoover. Coolidge was quoted by a newspaperman "I am no longer fit for these times, we are in a new era to which I do not belong."
I guess we have different definitions on what a good president is or was.
Herbert Hoover caused a recession to go into the Great Depression because of his insistence wages stay high during the recession (when in the past all wages dropped in the lean years). He also pushed a massive public works project through that never did anything but waste money. Oh and he used QE to try and manipulate us out of trouble.
Recessions happen, but had we always done what we had in the prior recessions and cut wages through the lean times then we would have been ok and raised wages when the economy got healthy again.
And Coolidge didn't run again because he made it clear that the presidency wasn't a monarchy. He believed as Washington. FDR on the other hand thought he was above the office.
