Republican · 1921–1923
Warren G. Harding
Tax cuts and ‘normalcy,’ with a corrupt cabinet around him.
Warren G. Harding was president 1921–1923. The party color on the chart is Republican. Early presidents are not forced into today’s party names. The placement note is: Tax cuts and ‘normalcy,’ with a corrupt cabinet around him.
The dot is economics +40 and authority +16. That is right of center on economics. The other axis sits toward authority. 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: Normalcy: lower taxes, less Wilson, a return to calm. Done: Taxes fell. The interior and veterans’ scandals were the follow-through the speeches skipped. Where those two sentences pull apart, the dot follows the governing record, not the slogan.
The nearest other presidents on these two numbers are Grover Cleveland (1885–1889, 1893–1897, +36 / +6) and Herbert Hoover (1929–1933, +30 / +22). 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.