Keep Cool

At Big Government they take note of our favorite president.

Worth a read.

3rd Time's The Charm

Coolidge signs tax cuts into law.

For the third Presidents Day of the Flingin' Darts era we honor the great Coolidge. The prior posts are here:

Keep Cool in 2008.

Trying Again in 2009.

Here are some political cartoons from the Coolidge presidency. They are quite a bit busier than today's cartoons and may be very difficult to read without blowing them up, but we'll give it a go:

Silent Cal and Walter E. Williams

From the first day of this blog we've put a Coolidge quote in the header. Cal is a particular favorite around here. There are many great quotes from him that we could use, but the one we chose is succinct. He points out how important knowledge is as well as the ability to stay calm and avoid excessive oratory. We always thought it was funny in a world of blogs, cable TV shout shows, and 24 hour/day talk radio that our banner cautioned against saying too much. Humorous to us, but not many others. After all, we follow the perfect prescription for having few readers-- shut off comments and put a quote from the unjustifiably obscure Coolidge in the header.

This morning I was reading Walter E. Williams' latest column. (Walter is no stranger to talk radio and punditry. He guests on many shows and even guest hosts the biggest talk radio show in America a couple times a year.) It's interesting to read him on how important the knowledge of the individual is and how large institutions like government are ill equipped to make decisions for individuals. So why is there always a push from the power elites to make these decisions? Well, it has nothing to do with your health.

"There is only one reason for the forcible transference of decision-making authority over important areas of our private lives to elite decision-makers in Congress and government bureaucracies. Doing so confers control, power, wealth and revenue to society's elite. What's in the best interests of individual members of society, such as a person who'd rather launch a landscaping business than purchase a health insurance policy, ranks low on the elite's list of priorities."

Walter E. Williams, "The Pretense of Knowledge"

Trying Again in 2009

Last year on President's Day we posted our own small tribute to one of the two great presidents of the 20th century, Calvin Coolidge. The headline was Keep Cool in 2008. That was a total failure-- unless you're one of the folks who thought a sleek young man who had never accomplished anything except "acting" cool should be POTUS. There's "cool" and then there's pretend and we are 100% in the land of make-believe now.

So, let's try again:

On the masthead here at Monkeydarts we brandish a pithy quote from one of the two greatest Presidents of the United States in the 20th Century. It's been there since the beginning of our site many decades... er, weeks ago.

In honor of President's Day here are a few more wise words from Calvin Coolidge--

On persistence: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan 'press-on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

The party that will most likely be in control of the legislative and executive branches next year favors the largest tax increase in US history. Calvin was a supply-sider before people used the term. Coolidge understood the "Laffer Curve" before Art Laffer was on this earth. Along those lines: "The method of raising revenue ought not to impede the transaction of business; it ought to encourage it. I am opposed to extremely high rates, because they produce little or no revenue, because they are bad for the country, and, finally, because they are wrong... The wise and correct course to follow in taxation and in all other economic legislation is not to destroy those who have already secured success but to create conditions under which every one will have a better chance to be successful."

As we see the ugly rise of anti-trade, hate-the-successful, nitwit populism in American politics once again, try this from the The Cool One: "Government cannot relieve from toil. The normal must take care of themselves. Self-government means self-support. Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing. History reveals no civilized people among whom there was not a highly educated class and large aggregations of wealth. Large profits mean large payrolls."

In this election year, a bit of wisdom about our political class: "The people who start to elect a man to get what he can for his district will probably find they have elected a man who will get what he can for himself."

Coolidge presided over an amazing period of peace and prosperity. When he chose not to run again his popularity was such that he clearly would have won in a landslide. Instead he said, "We draw our Presidents from the people. It is a wholesome thing for them to return to the people. I came from them. I wish to be one of them again."

-----------

I can hope that a Coolidge or Reagan will stride upon the stage and save us from the socialist fascism we are now plunging head first into but I fear we don't deserve saving yet.

pictured: Silent Cal signs the tax rate cut bill.

Recipe for Destruction

Amity Shlaes wrote the essential reassessment of The Great Depression, The Forgotten Man, and she always gets my attention when she has something to tell us about today's economic situation. In the WashPost she describes Five Ways to Wreck a Recovery. It is not an attack on one political party or the other. It is simply a thumbnail sketch of 5 things the political class might do to derail our recovery from a small downturn and turn it into a full blown disaster. At every turn she warns us to learn from the many mistakes of Hoover and FDR.

The 5 Ways To Wreck a Recovery

1. Protectionism- then: Smoot-Hawley... now: populist politicians seeing votes in emotional attacks on free trade

2. Blaming the Messenger- then: evil stock operators wrecked the economy... now: evil banks/ lenders wrecked the credit markets

3. Increasing Tax Rates- then: Hoover took (The Great) Coolidge's 25% top rate and raised it to 63% followed by FDR taking it to 90%. Of course, capital left the marketplace and unemployment soared... now: Presumptive President Obama has talked about doubling the taxes on investment income, raising taxes markedly on the job producing "rich", and levying special "windfall" taxes on industries he doesn't like while giving gifts (AKA- subsidies & tax breaks) to those he likes. Capital will flee, unemployment will soar, and a long period of decline will follow until a Coolidge or Reagan comes along again to straighten the mess out.

4. Assuming Bigger Government Promotes Growth- then: the multiple disasters rolled up into the New Deal... now: both political parties to varying degrees

5. Ignoring the Costs of Inconsistency- then: FDR's "bold persistent experiment" which essentially was try every loopy thing no matter how it conflicts with everything else... now: hope & change for something (we know not what), running against a Republican who declares in ads the "the economy is in a shambles" and "we're worse off than four years ago"

NOTE: The 5 bullet points above come from Amity Shlaes, I added the then/ now that followed each one. For her far more lucid and better written ideas click on the Washington Post link above. Sorry for any confusion-- I shouldn't ever post anything before my 6th cup of coffee!

The Narcissist Protesteth

The big buzz in DC the past couple days has been about President Bush's wonderful speech to the Knesset in Israel. Unfortunately the buzz has not been about the speech itself but about this one section:

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along.We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American Senator declared, " 'Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.' We have an obligation to call this what it is – the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history."



The junior US Senator from Illinois is such a narcissist he was certain this was about him. SanFran Nan Pelosi, Hair Plugs Biden and Lurch Kerry all thought the same thing and droned about how horrible it was. Hey, if the shoe fits, wear it. And take a long hike while you're at it. The only senator the President ever referred to in the speech was a Republican from Idaho, William Edgar Borah. Borah (his statue is pictured here) was Senator from 1907-40 and is most infamous for the quote about talking Hitler out of invading Poland. Borah was a "progressive" and a giant pain in the rump to the conservative Republicans of his day. He earned the nickname "The Great Opposer" in the US Senate because he was so contrary. Today Tim Russert, Don Imus and Chris Matthews would have him on their shows all the time and introduce him as, "the maverick Republican Senator from Idaho, a good friend of our program, William Borah." Sometimes Borah's allies in the Senate would be a group so small they'd be called "The Irreconcilables" -- sort of like the "Gang of 14." You get the picture. (Maybe McCain should have been the one bitching about President Bush using Borah in a speech. We kid because we love.)



We'll leave the summing up of "the Great Opposer" William Borah to one of the two great presidents of the 20th century, Calvin Coolidge. When told of Borah's love for horseback riding back in Idaho, silent Cal replied, “I wonder if it bothers Borah to be going in the same direction as his horse.”

Keep Cool in 2008

On the masthead here at Monkeydarts we brandish a pithy quote from one of the two greatest Presidents of the United States in the 20th Century. It's been there since the beginning of our site many decades... er, weeks ago. In honor of President's Day here are a few more wise words from Calvin Coolidge--

On persistence: "Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan 'press-on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

The party that will most likely be in control of the legislative and executive branches next year favors the largest tax increase in US history. Calvin was a supply-sider before people used the term. Coolidge understood the "Laffer Curve" before Art Laffer was on this earth. Along those lines: "The method of raising revenue ought not to impede the transaction of business; it ought to encourage it. I am opposed to extremely high rates, because they produce little or no revenue, because they are bad for the country, and, finally, because they are wrong... The wise and correct course to follow in taxation and in all other economic legislation is not to destroy those who have already secured success but to create conditions under which every one will have a better chance to be successful."

As we see the ugly rise of anti-trade, hate-the-successful, nitwit populism in American politics once again, try this from the The Cool One: "Government cannot relieve from toil. The normal must take care of themselves. Self-government means self-support. Ultimately property rights and personal rights are the same thing. History reveals no civilized people among whom there was not a highly educated class and large aggregations of wealth. Large profits mean large payrolls."

In this election year, a bit of wisdom about our political class: "The people who start to elect a man to get what he can for his district will probably find they have elected a man who will get what he can for himself."

Coolidge presided over an amazing period of peace and prosperity. When he chose not to run again his popularity was such that he clearly would have won in a landslide. Instead he said, "We draw our Presidents from the people. It is a wholesome thing for them to return to the people. I came from them. I wish to be one of them again."