Boy howdy, has a lot of physical and electronic ink spilled over what people think President Donald John Trump's place in history will look like. Remember that history tends to even out over time, as a person's detractors and supporters alike fade from the stage and the recording of history becomes more academic. You won't find too many people these days with a heavy emotional investment in the outcome of the Third Punic War, for instance.
We can, however, look for historical parallels. History may not always repeat, as the saying goes, but it often rhymes. And there was an early 20th-century president who, like Trump, placed American interests first; who, like Trump, believed in cutting taxes and regulations and who, like Trump, was cautious about foreign entanglements and wars. But as far as personalities go, the two presidents couldn't be more different.
This earlier president is Calvin Coolidge, and his presidency is worth considering.
John Calvin Coolidge Jr. was born in 1872. He was a Republican lawyer from Massachusetts - that was possible in those days - and served as Governor of Massachusetts from 1919 to 1921, as Vice President to Warren G. Harding from 1921 to 1923, and became president when Harding died suddenly of a heart attack. He served the remainder of Harding's term and was elected in his own right in 1924.
Coolidge's rise in the Republican Party began while he was governor, and the Boston police force threatened a strike for higher wages. Governor Coolidge fired them all.
Events in September 1919 made Coolidge a national figure. The Boston police force decided to unionise and went on strike for higher wages and a reduction in hours. Coolidge, working with Boston police commissioner Edwin Curtis, fired all the striking police and brought in state militia and private guards to maintain order until new police could be hired. “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time”, Coolidge wrote to labor leader Samuel Gompers.
This may remind us more of Ronald Reagan firing the air-traffic controllers, but Calvin Coolidge wasn't done yet. He cut the national debt, balanced the federal budget, and lowered marginal tax rates. That sounds almost MAGA-like. As Amity Shlaes wrote in 2013:
An alternative model for conservatives is Calvin Coolidge. President from 1923 to 1929, Coolidge sustained a budget surplus and left office with a smaller budget than the one he inherited. Over the same period, America experienced a proliferation of jobs, a dramatic increase in the standard of living, higher wages, and three to four percent annual economic growth. And the key to this was Coolidge’s penchant for saying “no.” If Reagan was the Great Communicator, Coolidge was the Great Refrainer.
Restraint, of course, is a personality trait that's far too uncommon in today's political world.
Like Trump, Coolidge also insisted on keeping the federal bureaucracy in check:
The Coolidge White House also paved the way for reducing the size of the federal bureaucracy. Coolidge made good use of his pocket veto and vetoed a farm subsidies bill twice even though he grew up as a farmer. He firmly believed that it wasn’t the job of the federal government to help farmers. His stance on government intervention was clear, and he consistently vetoed bills that he believed overstepped the government’s role.
Coolidge was not an isolationist but was generally skeptical of the nascent League of Nations, a pre-United Nations organization that failed in the run-up to World War 2. One area where Coolidge and Trump may have disagreed was on defense; Coolidge was cool towards defense spending and pushed disarmament on the international scene; again, World War 2 put an end to that kind of thinking in general. Coolidge also favored the U.S. entering the Permanent Court of International Justice, which became the World Court.
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Of course, when it comes to personalities, the two presidents couldn't be more different. President Trump is, as we all know, mercurial, glib, charismatic, and outwardly forceful. Calvin Coolidge was just the opposite. When he ascended to the presidency on President Harding's death, he had managed to keep such a low profile that much of the country didn't know who he was. There is an apocryphal story of a newspaper reporter approaching "Silent Cal" at a White House function and telling the president, "I have a bet that I can get you to say three words tonight." President Coolidge coolly replied, "You lose."
Even so, when you look at both presidents, there are more similarities than differences. Calvin Coolidge, like Donald Trump, put American interests first. He cut taxes and regulations and oversaw a booming economy - the Roaring Twenties. He worked to keep the federal government in check, and he was cautious about entangling the United States in the affairs of other nations. He was one of the most unappreciated presidents of the 20th century, but his presidency was by any measure a success - as is the presidency of our 47th president, so far.
