It is appropriate that today, Independence Day, is also the birthday of President Ronald Reagan's favorite President, Calvin Coolidge. "Silent Cal" is also the only president born on the Fourth of July. The Heritage Foundation calls Coolidge "one of the most eloquent defenders of America’s principles" and if you take some time to read about him you will certainly agree. Here is what Coolidge said about the Declaration of Independence: “"It is often asserted that the world has made a great deal of progress since 1776, that we have had new thoughts and new experiences which have given us a great advance over the people of that day, and that we may therefore very well discard their conclusions for something more modern. But that reasoning can not be applied to this great charter. If all men are created equal, that is final. If they are endowed with inalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which he can proceed historically is not forward, but backward toward the time when there was no equality, no rights of the individual, no rule of the people. Those who wish to proceed in that direction can not lay claim to progress. They are reactionary. Their ideas are not more modern, but more ancient, than those of the Revolutionary fathers."
A President who mouthed those words had to be pretty good - especially if he believed them, which Cal apparently did. That's how he governed. He believed very firmly that if it ain't broke, you don't have to fix it - and during his term in office, everything was going pretty well. He probably also believed that if it does appear to be broke (free market-wise) it will probably fix itself. Maybe if he had stayed around for another term, we would not have had to deal with the Great Depression.
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