Silent Cal Talks!

For this, I have to give a hat tip to Dan Mitchell, who writes on the Cato@Liberty blog:

Many advocates of limited government are rather unhappy with the GOP’s fiscal record in recent years. Yet even after losing Congress in part because of fiscal profligacy, it seems that Republicans have not learned any lessons. The major candidates for the Republican presidential nomination have conspicuously failed to identify programs they would cut and departments they would eliminate — presumably because they have no interest in reducing the burden of government. But then I found this video, which shows that it is possible to be a Republican who believes in smaller government.

And here is the video he mentions, the first sound film of a U.S. president, recorded by radio and film pioneer Lee De Forest on the White House lawn:

Calvin Coolidge, like Grover Cleveland, is a president who does not get the credit he deserves for strict adherence to the Constitution and its vision of limited government, with clearly defined powers allotted to the federal government, and rights retained by the people. It is nice to learn that at least one of his speeches has been preserved in both sound and image.