At the October 7  symposium on Coolidge — sponsored by the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation and hosted by the John F. Kennedy presidential library — historian Carl Sferrazza Anthony offered his thoughts on Grace Coolidge.  C-Span recorded his talk (as well as all the others delivered that day), but only now have they got around to showing it.

I’ll keep you posted on other videos from the event as they become available.

Coolidge got some surprising attention from Salon.com in its coverage of the No Labels political start-up. Not wholly accurate attention, to be sure. And certainly not in the service of a cause that Coolidge would support. (The author, Alex Pareene, is basically arguing against the notion of civility in politics, or at least against the utility of organizations devoted to it.)

Here’s what Pareene has to say about Coolidge:

Rich self-declared independents, we have been trained to believe, have no ideology. But the ones who support Mayor Bloomberg and fund centrist organizations like this tend to be conservative Democrats — or, more accurately, Calvin Coolidge Republicans. Coolidge was the original reasonable moderate! Silent Cal supported an invisible regulatory state and anti-lynching laws. (Only one of those priorities survived filibusters, of course — a tax cut for the rich has always been easier to get through Congress than protections for a minority group.) And his pro-business policies led to so much growth, for everyone, until … they didn’t, not long after his powerful commerce secretary succeeded him as president.

There’s an element of truth hiding in here somewhere: the notion that Coolidge was devoted to civility.

But in fact, Coolidge demonstrates that civility is not fundamentally “unserious” (to use Pareene’s terminology). And it’s not anti-political. Rather, civility can bolster meaningful politics.

Civility does not mean easy, empty, split-the-difference compromise. It does mean treating your opponents like decent people, rather than enemies of the Republic. It does mean making room for reasonable debate about the role of government, rather than tossing around words like “fascist” and “socialist.”

Seriously, why do we tolerate name-calling and gross exaggeration in the political arena? If it happened at our dining room tables, we’d be aghast. Or in our classrooms. Or anywhere.

OK, call me naive. And let me have it — I can almost hear you folks gnashing your teeth…

Coolidge delivering his first State of the Union address on December 6, 1923. Photo courtesy of the Library of Congress.

Today marks the 87 anniversary of Calvin Coolidge’s first State of the Union address. The speech also marked another “first” — the dawn of the radio era in presidential rhetoric. According to the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia, Coolidge’s address was the first to be broadcast by radio — a move that reflected the soaring popularity of radio receivers. In 1923, there were 2.5 million receivers in private homes across the nation. Three years earlier, there had been fewer than 5,000.

The speech itself is remembered for its indication that Coolidge would continue the policies of his predecessor, Warren Harding. Reflecting my abiding interest in 1920s-era taxation, let me offer this quick selection:

For seven years the people have borne with uncomplaining courage the tremendous burden of national and local taxation. These must both be reduced. The taxes of the Nation must be reduced now as much as prudence will permit, and expenditures must be reduced accordingly. High taxes reach everywhere and burden everybody. They bear most heavily upon the poor. They diminish industry and commerce. They make agriculture unprofitable. They increase the rates on transportation. They are a charge on every necessary of life. Of all services which the Congress can render to the country, I have no hesitation in declaring to neglect it, to postpone it, to obstruct it by unsound proposals, is to become unworthy of public confidence and untrue to public trust. The country wants this measure to have the right of way over any others.

Forgive me for pointing out (again), that Coolidge was willing to walk the walk when it came to fiscal conservatism. He never suggested tax cuts that weren’t “paid for” with spending cuts. As he put it (and I test your patience by repeating it, yet again), “the taxes of the Nation must be reduced now as much as prudence will permit, and expenditures must be reduced accordingly.”

Contemporary deficit hawks should emulate that kind of honest, candid budgeting.

The full transcript of Coolidge’s speech is available from the Miller Center.

Reason magazine has posted a short item on Why Coolidge Matters. Katherine Mangu-Ward begins by noting that Coolidge was the only president sworn in by a notary.

This seemingly incidental historical fact was apparently enough to spur the National Notary Association to pour considerable resources into Why Coolidge Matters: How Civility in Politics Can Bring a Nation Together, a new glossy coffee-table book filled with celebrity testimonials and sepia-toned snaps that feature Silent Cal.

The resulting grab bag of low-key Coolidge worship is odd but curiously satisfying. Former Democratic presidential nominee Michael Dukakis praises Coolidge’s grassroots organizing. Black Republican activist Ward Connerly revels in Coolidge’s “minimalist view” of his own abilities. And Sen. John Kerry D-Mass. declares: “America Needs a New Coolidge.” The man may have a point.