Thursday, February 21, 2013

Coolidge Comment

Coolidge Comment Calvin Coolidge is always good for an apt quote. After the election of 1892 when Harrison lost to Cleveland, he said: “The result of the election was as much a surprise to the Democrats here ( Amherst College) as to the Republicans, and nobody seems able to account for it satisfactorily yet. ... the reason seems to be in the never satisfied mind of the American and in the ever desire to shift in hope of something better and in the vague idea of the working and farming classes that somebody is getting all the money while they get all the work.” A college friend of Coolidge’s ( Dwight Morrow) also expressed his opinion of American politics after an experience canvassing for a spot on a school board: “I have had my first contact with the great unwashed American sovereign and to say that I am discouraged and disgusted with city political methods is putting it mild.” ... “Life does not have any knight erranty left to it now.” Just listen to the news each day and you will agree with me that “knight erranty” is dead. The “great unwashed” live. The American mind is never satisfied. Politics is the last resort of scoundrels. To enter politics, a person must leave his principles behind to look ahead to money-grabbing and equivocal ethics