From the outset, Obama’s vanity has clouded his judgment and has frustrated the very political and economic systems he has attempted to help. World leaders love him, yet ignore him. His policies alienated constituents, even in Democratic strongholds like California and New Jersey. Yet through it all, Obama has clamored to the public forum, convinced that if he articulated his vision more clearly, if he could only make his mission manifest to the small minds of the American People.
President Obama's grandstanding speeches underscore his repeated failures. Rather than looking to the rhetorical flourishes of Ronald Reagan, the Republican Party and the nation ought to heed to quotable President Calvin Coolidge, an oft-overlooked executive who presided over an unprecedented period of economic growth.
In evaluating the elitist, statist, activist arrogance of the Obama administration, President Coolidge would say: "When a man begins to feel that he is the only one who can lead in this republic, he is guilty of treason to the spirit of our institutions."
Obama has evinced in a number of ways this spirit of self-regard condemned by Coolidge, from the outrageous horde of unaccountable bureaucratic appointments, to the legislative shenanigans and backroom deals that thrust "Obamacare" on an unwilling public, to extensive financial bailouts to irresponsible lenders and financial firms, to the fiat corporate take-over of General Motors. Obama has never hesitated to marginalize Congress, the Constitution, and even his constituents to further his Progressive paradise of Big Government as Big Brother, Broker, and Bondsman.
The 30th President would have no trouble pinpointing the failures of the 44th President. Yet what can we from Coolidge about prospering prosperity in a country fed up with merely hope and change? How did President Coolidge help turn a near-moribund economy into a prosperous one following a horrendous world war? He didn’t! He got out of the way. Columnist Walter Lippmann opined that Coolidge's genius lay in “effectively doing nothing”.
"The business of America is business," Coolidge is often quoted saying. Not the government, but a free market economy spurs recovery, prosperity, and innovation.
"The people cannot look to legislation generally for success."
Coolidge vetoed handouts to suffering farmers, yet the economy still flourished. Obamacare, the proliferation of regulatory agencies, czar-appointments unaccountable to Congress, stimulus spending, extension of unemployment benefits: none of Obama’s public hand-outs and shovel-ready projects have stirred the economy from its anemic stupor.
"Government cannot relieve from toil. It can provide no substitute for the rewards of service. It can, of course, care for the defective and recognize distinguished merit. The normal must care for themselves. Self-government means self-support."
Coolidge never dismissed the role of government for the needy, but certainly not for everyone else. Alarmingly, the number of needy, dependent, and dispossessed grows under Obama in the wake of ballooning entitlements, shrinking revenues, and impending budget shortfalls. Rather than aiding and abetting the growing constituency of dependents, the United States needs an executive who fosters a steady weaning from the public teat, reinforcing the value of “self-government” as “self-support.”
"If all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves."
Rather than looking to the government to solve our problems, which it has failed to do, the American people need to focus on their local needs, trust to their individual efforts, and effect purpose in their own communities. Not depending on one’s neighbor, however rich he may be, to bail you out when times are tough. Not expecting the government to provide for every worker who would rather hold out his hand for alms instead of put his hand to the wheel and work.
"Don't you know that four fifths of all our troubles in this life would disappear if we would just sit down and keep still?"
If the Obama Administration stopped spending, regulating, managing and controlling, adjusting, crediting, adding, subtracting, debating, deliberating, and changing the regulations, businesses would hire; workers would work, and earners would take home more pay. The panic-induced rush by Obama’s Beltway bureaucracy, from insurance mandates to short-term tax cuts, to billowing red-tape, all foster a deadly atmosphere of uncertainty, the very bally-hoo that frustrates investment, stalls industrial growth, and puts off economic recovery.
"This country would not be a land of opportunity, America could not be America, if the people were shackled with government monopolies."
From General Motors to global banking firms to Wall Street, Obama has diminished the alacrity of trade at the expense of wasted investment in green technologies and flighty distribution of wealth, which only spreads unemployment and poverty.
Aside from his laissez-faire approach to governing the United States, President Coolidge was well-known for frequent press conferences and few public speeches. “Silent Cal” once beat a journalist in a bet, when the commentator attempted to get more than two words out of him. “You lose,” Coolidge calmly replied.
While Obama talks a lot and does too much, Coolidge said enough and did very little. Would that Obama possessed Coolidge-like laconism instead of left-wing loquacity.
Arthur Christopher Schaper is a teacher-turned-writer on topics both timeless and timely; political, cultural, and eternal. A life-long Southern California resident, Arthur currently lives in Torrance.
