Tuesday, February 21, 2012

President's Day...

A moment to reflect benignly on Calvin Coolidge.
Yeah I know...
He was a reactionary
And a Union Buster (the BPD, never to be confused with the ADA, still curse his name to this day)
And a torpid President even on his best day.
And he railed against governance thru out a twenty eight year career on the public payroll...
If Warren Harding his predecessor in Office was befuddled by the Presidency, if Herbert Hoover his sucessor was overwhelmed in the White House then Calvin Coolidge was simply bemused by the sinecure. Certainly he was never so bemused as to be roused to any activity while President.

But what the hell, his teenaged son up and died on him in the summer of 1924. All and sundry agree Coolidge never got over the loss.
It is always sad when a stern puritanical Brahmin suffers an crippling emotional loss, a lifetime of withholding behavior leaves them with no defense from the onslaught every time.
You might even say that Calvin Coolidge that Yankee Sphinx, literally died of a broken heart.
And he had the common sense to live out the balance of his days in the prettiest part of the Commonwealth, we should all do so badly.

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