Alternative to that of the Left that is, who have a stranglehold on academic history in the USA, as they do on so many other academic areas, not to mention key areas of our lives, and with a will to power and control seemingly encoded into their DNA.

One small aspect of this is that GOP Presidents are regularly rated far down the scale of success compared to Democrats, with only Abraham Lincoln standing near the top of the pile, or perhaps at the top because of his leadership in the Civil War that ended American Slavery.

The bias shows most clearly when even recent Democrat Presidents are hailed to the skies by such historians when it is normally accepted that years, even decades, should pass to allow the evidence to be weighed and sifted. Barack Obama is the worst example of that.

And of course the main driver of such positive assessments is not even so much the ideology or character of the men – every Left-wing historian is well aware of President Wilson’s deep-seated hatred of Blacks – but the basic measurement that apply, which is the Leftist worship of a huge and powerful state that is ever-expanding. Which is why FDR is near the top: that vast tsunami of laws, regulations and State bureaucracies that he and his Democrat Congress generated in the 1930’s. Wilson the same and even LBJ, otherwise hated for the Vietnam War: both men are rated higher because of their relentless enlargement of the State.

As a result, the 19th century Republican Presidents, and Harding, Coolidge and Reagan, are dumped down the “success” table because they went in the opposite direction. President Eisenhower is cut slack because of his military-political prowess, foreign policy smarts and the fact that he left FDR’s giant machine in place.

Reagan seems to have risen a few notches in recent years, but only because of a begrudging attitude that “the amiable dunce” did actually change things, hence Obama figuratively putting his arm around what had been a Democrat-Left hate figure.

And of course the ideological mythology can get so powerful that sometimes even a GOP President who did raise taxes and expand the state massively – Herbert Hoover especially – get trashed by the historians in spite of that. Such is the hangover from long-ago elections.

There are a few historians who fight the good fight, recently deceased British historian Paul Johnson was one who did so for Coolidge and Nixon. He also did it for Coolidge’s GOP predecessor, Warren Harding, who died 100 years ago on August 2nd.

This article, Warren G. Harding’s Turnaround of America, uses the work of Ryan S. Walters to defend the man, but starts with the mythology about him being dull and inexperienced in politics, tactically moved into being the GOP nominee in 1920 by backers who promptly looted everything they could while Harding sat around drinking, playing poker and chasing women – until it all came crashing down with the Teapot Dome scandal, which distressed Harding so much that he died of a heart attack.

Reading the article lists more than a few facts to counter all this, this one being a classic in that nothing changes:

Upon assuming the Oval Office, Harding inherited a nation in turmoil. The economy was in shambles. The Federal income tax, which Wilson had established (through constitutional amendment) on the promise that it would only apply to the wealthy, was affecting people at all wage levels.[vi] Wartime Federal spending had continued unabated, and the country was deeply in debt.

The income tax had only been introduced in 1913, but by 1920 had already risen as high as 73%, with even low-income earners paying 10%

But it was the following I’ve always appreciated the most, especially whenever I hear the GOP compared to fascists:

Harding’s efforts to heal the nation sometimes took political courage. He commuted the prison sentence of socialist Eugene V. Debs, whom Wilson had imprisoned under the Espionage Act for speaking against the war. Harding did so, believing it the right thing to do, even though many of his supporters (including Mrs. Harding) opposed it. While Debs was no fan of Harding’s politics, he was eternally grateful for the gesture and called Harding a kind, humane man. In another act of political valor, he traveled to segregated Alabama and delivered an address supporting economic equality and opportunity for Black Americans.

It’s interesting to note that the President who has most used the Espionage Act to prosecute and jail people since the execarable Woodrow Wilson was President Obama, although history will record the current Ambulatory Vegetable in Chief as one who exceeded Wilson’s efforts in using the power of the State against free speech.

Read the whole thing.

See also, 100 Years Against Our Imperial Presidency:

Harding confronted the South at Birmingham by arguing in terms nearly identical to his Oklahoma City campaign speech of fall 1920 when he said:  “I wouldn’t be fit to be president of the United States if I didn’t tell you the same things here in the south that I tell in the north. I believe in race equality before the law. You can’t give one right to a white man and deny it to a black man.”