1. Following the Wilson Presidency, and Hardings landslide victory, he brought in such luminaries as Charles Evans Hughes, Secy of State, and Andrew Mellon, who served as Secy of Treasury for almost eleven years, of whom it was said Three presidents served under Mellon.
a. Under the eight years of Harding-Coolidge, GNP grew at an average rate of 4½ % per year.
2. Historians Schlesinger, Commager, William Alan White in his book The Puritan in Babylon, saw the Coolidge prosperity as ephemeral, and saw an intellectual shallowness. But Tucker makes the point that the 20s demonstrate the speed with which industrial productivity could transfer luxuries into necessities, and spread them down the class pyramid. The economic tide sweeping the country permeated the lower income sector of the economy. Prosperity was more widespread and more widely distributed than at any time in American history, right up until this point!
3. While many see a Harding-Coolidge-Hoover continuum, this ignores the realities of the time. Hoover actually was a part of the progressive wing of the Republican Party, as opposed to Harding and Coolidge, and the economic policies of Mellon, i.e., lower taxes and less government spending.
a. Hoover increased spending and raised taxes. Democratic candidate for president, John Davis wrote a letter to Walter Lippmann, identifying Hoover as the start of the New Deal, which FDR continued.
4. The 1924 election was the last time that both major parties nominated true conservatives, Calvin Coolidge, Republican, and John W. Davis, Democrat. He faced the popular Coolidge and the Democrats suffered another landslide defeat, as he carried just 28.8% of the popular vote and 136 Electoral Votes. After this election, the GOP and the Democrats moved toward their current positions on the political spectrum.
a. In 32, Davis helped write what was a very conservative platform for the Democrats; it included a balanced budget and cutting government spending. This was in response to the progressive ideas of Hoover, and it was the platform on which FDR won his election. Needless to say, FDR ignored the platform once elected.
b. As a result, Davis broke with the Democrats in 36, and supported Landon. Davis chose to remain steadfast in his defense of a much more conservative philosophy, attacking the Democratic administration for what he perceived as an emasculation of state authority and its usurpation of power the framers of the Constitution had never envisioned. He was not content merely to criticize, but devoted his energies to the organization of the American Liberty League in 1934 to resist the legal and social changes then well under way. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/John_William_Davis.aspx
c. Davis argued some 142 cases before the Supreme Court, more than any lawyer other than Daniel Webster. In one of his last cases, successfully defended the steel industry against the government's seizure of its plants and production properties.
4. Often a national change of political course is justified by an economic emergency. The most recent such emergencies have been in 1920, 1932, 1980 and the current one. It is instructive to review the policies that emerged from each, and the results of those policies.
a. 1920 and 1980 resulted in conservative policies such as lower taxes and less government spending. These would be the polices of Harding, Coolidge, and Reagan. The years immediately following were of growth and prosperity.
b. 1932 saw the liberal policies of FDR, very different from the above. The result: deflation and economic stagnation, and a multi-year extension of the depression.
c. What will the results of President Obama's policies be???
C-Span carried a lecture by Garland Tucker III, about his book The High Tide of American Conservatism,. The above notes are bases on his comments.
A view of the Tucker book from the left may be found here:
Drowning in the "high tide" of conservatism | Citizen | Independent Weekly
a. Under the eight years of Harding-Coolidge, GNP grew at an average rate of 4½ % per year.
2. Historians Schlesinger, Commager, William Alan White in his book The Puritan in Babylon, saw the Coolidge prosperity as ephemeral, and saw an intellectual shallowness. But Tucker makes the point that the 20s demonstrate the speed with which industrial productivity could transfer luxuries into necessities, and spread them down the class pyramid. The economic tide sweeping the country permeated the lower income sector of the economy. Prosperity was more widespread and more widely distributed than at any time in American history, right up until this point!
3. While many see a Harding-Coolidge-Hoover continuum, this ignores the realities of the time. Hoover actually was a part of the progressive wing of the Republican Party, as opposed to Harding and Coolidge, and the economic policies of Mellon, i.e., lower taxes and less government spending.
a. Hoover increased spending and raised taxes. Democratic candidate for president, John Davis wrote a letter to Walter Lippmann, identifying Hoover as the start of the New Deal, which FDR continued.
4. The 1924 election was the last time that both major parties nominated true conservatives, Calvin Coolidge, Republican, and John W. Davis, Democrat. He faced the popular Coolidge and the Democrats suffered another landslide defeat, as he carried just 28.8% of the popular vote and 136 Electoral Votes. After this election, the GOP and the Democrats moved toward their current positions on the political spectrum.
a. In 32, Davis helped write what was a very conservative platform for the Democrats; it included a balanced budget and cutting government spending. This was in response to the progressive ideas of Hoover, and it was the platform on which FDR won his election. Needless to say, FDR ignored the platform once elected.
b. As a result, Davis broke with the Democrats in 36, and supported Landon. Davis chose to remain steadfast in his defense of a much more conservative philosophy, attacking the Democratic administration for what he perceived as an emasculation of state authority and its usurpation of power the framers of the Constitution had never envisioned. He was not content merely to criticize, but devoted his energies to the organization of the American Liberty League in 1934 to resist the legal and social changes then well under way. http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/John_William_Davis.aspx
c. Davis argued some 142 cases before the Supreme Court, more than any lawyer other than Daniel Webster. In one of his last cases, successfully defended the steel industry against the government's seizure of its plants and production properties.
4. Often a national change of political course is justified by an economic emergency. The most recent such emergencies have been in 1920, 1932, 1980 and the current one. It is instructive to review the policies that emerged from each, and the results of those policies.
a. 1920 and 1980 resulted in conservative policies such as lower taxes and less government spending. These would be the polices of Harding, Coolidge, and Reagan. The years immediately following were of growth and prosperity.
b. 1932 saw the liberal policies of FDR, very different from the above. The result: deflation and economic stagnation, and a multi-year extension of the depression.
c. What will the results of President Obama's policies be???
C-Span carried a lecture by Garland Tucker III, about his book The High Tide of American Conservatism,. The above notes are bases on his comments.
A view of the Tucker book from the left may be found here:
Drowning in the "high tide" of conservatism | Citizen | Independent Weekly
