“They criticize me for harping on the obvious; if all the folks in the United States would do the few simple things they know they ought to do, most of our big problems would take care of themselves.”

~ Calvin Coolidge

I’ve been thinking about a couple of things regarding the GOP platform from 1924 and President Calvin Coolidge. Those thoughts illuminate the fact that the problems we have today are not new – immigration, government intervention in the markets, foreign policy, federal spending and taxes – all were points in the GOP platform, same as now and there was once a man of character who chose to be known more for spitting on his hands, grabbing the ax handle and solving problems than clambering to the apex of the barn roof and crowing about himself. I did so as an illustration of the kind of character and devotion to principle required to address such problems. President “Silent Cal” Coolidge was the right man at the right time.

Coolidge was Warren G. Harding’s serious and effective Vice President. Harding was Donald Trump before Trump was Trump, running a campaign based on a “return to normalcy” after the disastrous terms of Wilson. As a matter of fact, former Treasury Secretary William G. McAdoo said of Harding’s speeches that they were “…an army of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea. Sometimes these meandering words actually capture a straggling thought and bear it triumphantly, a prisoner in their midst, until it died of servitude and over work.” H.L. Mencken also said of Harding:

“He writes the worst English that I have ever encountered. It reminds me of a string of wet sponges; it reminds me of tattered washing on the line; it reminds me of stale bean soup, of college yells, of dogs barking idiotically through endless nights. It is so bad that a sort of grandeur creeps into it. It drags itself out of the dark abysm of pish, and crawls insanely up the topmost pinnacle of posh. It is rumble and bumble. It is flap and doodle. It is balder and dash.”

Harding’s brief administration was plagued with scandals left over from the Wilson years. Instead of blaming George W. Bush, the Democrats of the 1920’s were saying “We blame Warren G. Harding.” After Harding’s death in office, Republicans were left to clean up the damage left over from the two terms of the anti-Constitution, racist progressive Woodrow Wilson.

Silent Cal proved to be up to the task.

Using Coolidge as a benchmark, I believe Ted Cruz embodies more of the characteristics of Silent Cal than any other candidate and given the similarities between the early 1920’s and today, it is my belief that we need solemn leadership based on sound principles. We do not need another “return to normalcy” or another President Harding spewing a plethora “of pompous phrases moving over the landscape in search of an idea.” We have a choice to skip a second Harding administration following the second coming of Woodrow Wilson, Barack Obama. We can have a second Coolidge administration and the reincarnation of Silent Cal is right in front of us.

That man is Ted Cruz.

Vote Cruz 2016. Say no to Donald J. Harding.