Garland Tucker, the Raleigh-based author of The High Tide of American Conservatism, asks in a column for The Daily Caller whether former President Calvin Coolidge’s ideas are worth employing in today’s political setting. (Tucker’s book, you’ll remember, takes its title from the conservative themes that dominated the Republican Coolidge’s successful 1924 election campaign against Democrat John W. Davis.)

While it appears that Coolidge’s reputation among historians is, deservedly, on the rise, the more important question is rather “Are Coolidge’s policies still relevant?” Reagan saw a compelling relevancy in Coolidge’s philosophy and policies. By hanging a portrait of Coolidge in the Cabinet Room, he was not simply paying homage to an underrated president; he was signaling that he intended to govern as Coolidge had. Indeed, Reagan’s philosophy of the role of government was very close to Coolidge’s, as were many of his policies, but Reagan’s successors have — to varying degrees — not espoused the Coolidge view. The nation continues to wrestle with defining the proper role of government.

Any understanding of Coolidge has to begin with his deep-seated confidence in individual liberty and free markets and his correspondingly deep-seated distrust of government. Coolidge explained, “I want the people of America to be able to work less for the government and more for themselves. I want them to have the rewards of their own industry. That is the chief meaning of freedom.” He defined the role of government as “maintaining peace, promoting economy, leaving the people in the possession of their own property, and maintaining the integrity of the courts.” Coolidge constantly battled the tendency for government to expand, stating, “I favor the American system of individual enterprise, and I am opposed to any general extension of government and control.” In his 1928 State of the Union address, Coolidge said: “The end of government is to keep open the opportunity for a more abundant life.” In the final analysis, he believed “success must depend on individual effort. The people make the government, not the government makes the people.”

For Coolidge, these bedrock values provided not just guidelines but also the moral underpinning for his philosophy of government.