Republican · 1923–1929
Calvin Coolidge
The small-government end of the Republican 1920s. Low taxes, few initiatives, a veto pen.
Calvin Coolidge was president 1923–1929. The party color on the chart is Republican. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: The small-government end of the Republican 1920s. Low taxes, few initiatives, a veto pen.
The dot is economics +58 and authority +10. That is right of center on economics. The other axis sits near the middle. Color and place are allowed to disagree. Theodore Roosevelt sits left of Grover Cleveland on economics.
What was said, and what the administration did, are filed separately. Said: The chief business of the American people is business. Economy in government. Done: He vetoed, cut, and declined to run again. The boom he left was not inspected. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are Warren G. Harding (1921–1923, +40 / +16) and Grover Cleveland (1885–1889, 1893–1897, +36 / +6). A small distance can join people who would have disliked each other. The chart is a compression, not a claim that they were alike.
Presidents are not placed with the Voteview roll-call score used for the current Congress. Two axes cannot carry a war, a court, a tariff, and a civil-rights record as separate facts.