Calvin Coolidge

Like James K. Polk, Calvin Coolidge is rarely mentioned or noticed by the general public. Also like Polk, though, in the circles where Coolidge is known, he is almost universally beloved. For many people, he was a reasonable, benevolent man who helped ensure that the 1920s were a period of economic prosperity and social progress. And for those who bend to the right politically, Coolidge's non-interventionist approach to the economy makes him one of the most underrated and great presidents in recent American history. But also like with Polk, I share none of these views. While I won't argue that Coolidge was a bad president, like I argued that Polk was, I would like to argue that he was not one of America's greats. Like with Bill Clinton and Martin Van Buren, I will, instead, argue that Coolidge was merely an average president.

Coolidge first gained national prominence in 1919, when he was the governor of Massachusetts. That year, the state's police launched a labor strike. The protest quickly devolved into violence. Coolidge, however, was not moved by this threatening development. He remained steadfast, refusing to give in to the workers' demands. News of this affair and Coolidge's response to it swiftly spread across the entire US. So, the following year, in 1920, Warren G. Harding, the right-wing libertarian nominee for the Republican Party, chose Coolidge as his running mate. Promising "a return to normalcy" - a retreat from the intimidating political and economic shifts seen under the presidencies of Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson - the two easily defeated the Democrat James M. Cox. On March 4, 1921, Harding replaced Wilson as president, and Coolidge entered the office of vice president.

Just over 2 years after it started, the Harding Era abruptly ended on August 2, 1923, when Harding died of a heart attack. With this, Coolidge became president. From here, Coolidge embarked on one of his most honorable acts as president. Throughout his tenure as vice president, Coolidge, alongside secretary of commerce and future-president Herbert Hoover, urged Harding to be transparent about his administration's corruption, which included, but was not limited to, one of Harding's officials illegally selling medical supplies reserved for the military. Most infamously, Albert Fall, Harding's secretary of the interior, was allowing the Mammoth Oil Company to drill oil in the Teapot Dome oil field, which was supposed to reserve for the navy, in exchange for gifts and money. Harding, however, refused to take Coolidge's advice, instead opting to cover it up. Coolidge's approach was vastly different. He finally allowed the investigations into Harding's many scandals to go through. But as admirable as this is, it wouldn't be Coolidge's main achievement.

On June 2, 1924, Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, which finally granted citizenship to Native Americans. I consider this to not only be Coolidge's greatest accomplishment, but also one of the best decisions ever made by an American president. But only about a week before this, Coolidge also made his worst decision, an action so cruel and draconian that it prevents him from being higher on my list. On May 26, 1924, Coolidge signed the Immigration Act of 1924. This was one of the most horrific, xenophobic laws passed in American history. The policy established limits on how many people from each country could reside in the US at any given time. Moreover, the bill outright banned all Japanese immigration to the US. This terrible policy, in fact, would continue to stain US immigration policy until 1965, when Lyndon B. Johnson repealed it with the Immigration and Nationality Act.

Something Coolidge is praised for quite a lot is his economic policy. Those on the right love Coolidge for implementing few regulations and rarely actually making decisions that altered the American economy. If someone wants the government to take a lassiez-faire approach, I can totally understand why this would give Coolidge additional points in their eyes. And that's fine. However, I, as someone who supports regulation and state intervention in the economy (at least to some extent), choose to push Coolidge down my list because of this.

Although, before I move on to other elements of the Coolidge Administration, I will make one additional note on Coolidge's economics: Even if you support a general lack of government intervention in the economy, there are certain aspects of Coolidge's policies regarding the US economy that deserve criticism from everyone, regardless of political affiliation. In writing that, I am mainly referring to the fact that during Coolidge's presidency, American farmers were deeply struggling. Coolidge was offered various opportunities to help them rebuild their livelihoods, and he refused every single time. This is an awful choice that warrants criticism, no matter what your spot on the political aisle is. It's similar to Grover Cleveland's decision to veto a bill that would have authorized the government to send seeds to farmers struggling in Texas. This veto is widely critiqued today. I've even seen right-wingers denounce it. If Cleveland's refusal to help farmers is lambasted, so should Coolidge's.

Earlier, I criticized Coolidge's economic policies, pointing out that I was only doing so because of my own personal disagreement with such policies. There are two more points of mine that are based on similar biases. The first centers around Coolidge's creation of what would become the Federal Communications Commission, which my support of free speech absolutism leaves me unable to support. He also took an isolation approach to foreign policy, rejecting various offers for the US to join the League of Nations.

Calvin Coolidge was not a terrible president. Exposing the Harding Administration's corruption and granting citizenship to Native Americans are both such major accomplishments that the ability of his flaws to damage his position on this list too severely. Alternatively, some of his issues are major enough to prevent his accomplishments from pushing him up into the upper half. He was average.