100 Years Against Our Imperial Presidency

August 3, 2023 represents the 100-year anniversary of the inauguration of President Calvin Coolidge.  The immediate circumstances of his rise to the highest office from the position of Vice President were peculiar and challenging.  President Warren Harding died in San Francisco on August 2, 1923.  Word reached Plymouth, Vermont late in the night.  Coolidge’s father John, a notary public, took the unusual step of swearing his son into the Presidency at almost 3 a.m. at the Coolidge family homestead.  The event is being recreated this week at the Coolidge Presidential Site. 

Harding's own father-in-law had told his daughter Florence not to marry Warren Harding because he was an "n-word." This common allegation against Harding was made in his state election races as well.

The Ohio Democratic Party argued publicly that if Harding won the election, Black people would rise up and take over the state.

Harding himself could not clarify whether he might have Black lineage and was happy to campaign for and alongside Black candidates in 1920.

At a time when anti-Black lynchings were at a peak and women were voting for the first time, the American public overwhelmingly rejected the racist slur against the Harding and Coolidge ticket.

Blacks who voted for Coolidge and Harding in places such as Florida were murdered in race riots over Blacks voting.

The limited practice and corrective rhetoric of Harding and Coolidge is an important healing balm for our nation's politics today.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/08/100_years_against_our_imperial_presidency.html