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In Support of Back-to-the-Basics Government
The humble, Vermont-hailing 1920s-era President, Calvin Coolidge, once bemoaned: “They criticize me for harping on the obvious . . .” This brief divulgence is a good crystallization of his legacy. In truth, advancing the obvious represents a dead mode of governance. The modern presidency does not retain the modest, stewardship sensibility that Silent Cal sustained throughout his seven years in office.
Coolidge espoused a simple, no-frills political duty centered around liberty, thrift, and non-intervention. Unlike his successors, he was a man with no grand social improvement plans up his sleeve. His focus rested on the preservation of principles, instead.
The contemporary reader is likely to find this mission lacking. Reared on the activist pledges bellowed forth from the American campaign podium, the business of mere principle-preservation might even register as morally negligent. But wait a minute.
Old republican restraint may know something we don’t. What if going back-to-the-basics is precisely the spoonful of medicine we’re in need of in an era of hemorrhaging funds, runaway federal projects, and fierce political friction?
It is no secret — though, perhaps forgotten in plain sight — that America has abandoned the stripped-down logic and domestic prioritization of the republic in favor of…
