You probably didn’t learn about our 30th President Calvin Coolidge in school, but he is a limited government thirst trap for Conservatives. If you love Federalism AND if you think state governments are better able to deal with local calamities than the Leviathan Federal Government, then you’ll find Cal super hot. He inspired President Ronald Reagan and Government Ron DeSantis and just for that Cal has earned our praise and approval.

George Washington and Abraham Lincoln used to have separate holidays to honor their birthdays. No mas. That’s sad, but on the other hand, it gives us a great opportunity to discuss lesser-known Presidents, like my man President Calvin Coolidge.

I was in college and Jimmy Carter had signed FEMA into law a few years before. Some Hippie-type, heal the world Professor was singing the praises of a federal government large enough to save us all from every ill and calamity. This kind of thinking gave us the inefficient money laundering behemoth (FEMA) that has attracted so many illegal aliens and alienated so many American citizens. Not from Cool-hand Cal:

In 1927 two natural disasters—both floods—struck the United States. One devastated the Mississippi Valley, while the other affected Vermont, President Calvin Coolidge’s home state. The floods displaced more than 700,000 Americans and caused immense destruction.

Yet in both cases, President Coolidge pushed back against calls for extensive federal involvement. He did not visit either flood site.

Coolidge knew his “inaction” would appear inhumane. But he refrained from involving the federal government not out of indifference or cruelty but rather owing to his firm commitment to ­federalism.

Coolidge’s Federalism

Coolidge understood that the president has his responsibilities and governors have theirs—never to overlap. The president could wage war against other nations, but he mustn’t intrude on his own governor’s territory, even to manage a flood response. These responses were the states’ “just obligations.”

What was President Coolidge afraid of? Rather than the expenditures of intervention, it was the precedents at risk of being broken, and the trends at risk of being ­established.

Finally:

In other words, unlike the remote national government, local actors could respond efficiently to the needs on the ground. It was a lesson he had first learned in independent, self-governing Plymouth Notch. Direct federal expenditures were futile without locals to lead the way.

Calvin Coolidge lived within his means, and he governed likewise. His limited intervention after the floods of 1927 preserved our federalism and Jeffersonian self-government. Truly, Coolidge’s strength often lay not in what he did, but in what he did not.

Oh, be still my heart. Believe it or not, Calvin Coolidge worked his way up through Boston politics to become Governor of Massachusetts. Not today. He was known for being taciturn with a dry sense of humor. He was opposed to Prohibition and favored women’s suffrage (Nobody’s perfect).

Calvin Coolidge or “Silent Cal”, our 30th president, balanced the budget every year in office, reduced the national debt by more than a billion dollars a year, backed an income tax reduction, and continued high tariffs. He’s also known for his use of the pocket veto, 30 of them. pic.twitter.com/Ls6G1JafMQ

— Jessi Bridges (@jessibridges) February 17, 2025

From The American Spectator:

His tenure as governor prompted Coolidge to national prominence in the Republican Party. He staked his political reputation on facing down the Boston Police Department when they went on strike in 1919. He asserted, “There is no right to strike against the public safety by anyone, anywhere, any time.” So he fired the whole police department and started anew. The country took notice that there was a Republican politician with principles, and so did the National Republican Party, who selected Coolidge to be Warren G Harding’s vice presidential running mate in 1920, and they won.

According to AEI scholar Matthew Continetti, the Harding/Coolidge Administration was the beginning of the conservative movement’s dominance in the Republican Party, which situated itself against President Wilson’s progressive policies.

Woodrow Wilson, bah, is the worst of the worst. Wilson was a bigot, who segregated the Federal Government and loved Eugenics. Typical Democrat hypocrite.

Cal inspired President Reagan and that is why Reagan knew to fire the whole air traffic controllers union.

Coolidge used the new invention radio to communicate with the public. He was big on Civil Rights for all. Cal was also all about “America First” and American Exceptionalism. He’s hot.

Finally, here is a great quote:

“I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. This is the chief meaning of freedom.

Until we can reestablish a condition under which the earnings of the people can be kept by the people, we are bound to suffer a very severe and distinct curtailment of our liberty.”
― Calvin Coolidge

Happy Presidents Day to Silent Cal Coolidge!

Featured Image: Norman Studio Boston/Adam Cuerdon, Restoration/Cropped/Public Domain