Commentary
People speak of a new year as turning the page, or starting out fresh, or forgetting the past.
At the start of a new year, I like to look back a century ago to see what has changed and what hasn’t.
In 1923, America had finally recovered from the Spanish flu, which killed 675,000 in the United States and an estimated 50 million worldwide. If we learned anything from that plague, it wasn’t enough to have protected the 1.08 million Americans who have died from COVID-19 (through November according to the CDC).
The biggest political event of 1923 was the death of Warren Harding, which elevated Calvin Coolidge to the presidency. The centenary of his inauguration will be observed in several ways this year, but it is worth noting that virtually every economic principle held by Coolidge (smaller government, reduced spending—he left office with a budget surplus and a smaller budget than when he entered) has been thrown over to our national detriment and disgrace. Among my favorite Coolidge quotes is this one about government: “If we give the best that is in us to our private affairs we shall have little need of government aid.” If only that attitude prevailed today….