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Too much of a hatchet job? Or a reasonable mainstream appraisal? [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 20:46, 28 March 2007 (EDT)

Too much of a hatchet job? Or a reasonable mainstream appraisal? [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 20:46, 28 March 2007 (EDT)

Frederick Lewis Taylor wrote in 1931 that

Frederick Lewis Allen wrote in 1931 that

:Under his imposing exterior he was just a common small-town man, an "average sensual man," the sort of man who likes nothing better in the world than to be with the old bunch when they gather at Joe's place for an all-Saturday-night session, with waistcoats unbuttoned and cigars between their teeth and an ample supply of bottles at hand.... Even making allowance for the refraction of Harding's personality through that of Nan Britton, [in her book] one sees with deadly clarify the essential ordinariness of the man, the commonness of his "Gee, dearie" and "Say, you darling," his being swindled out of a hundred dollars by card sharpers on a train ride... after he had reached the White House, the rowdies of the Ohio gang were fundamentally his sort.<ref name=taylor>Taylor, Frederick Lewis (1931), ''Only Yesterday,'' ch. VI, "Harding and the Scandals"</ref>

:Under his imposing exterior he was just a common small-town man, an "average sensual man," the sort of man who likes nothing better in the world than to be with the old bunch when they gather at Joe's place for an all-Saturday-night session, with waistcoats unbuttoned and cigars between their teeth and an ample supply of bottles at hand.... Even making allowance for the refraction of Harding's personality through that of Nan Britton, [in her book] one sees with deadly clarify the essential ordinariness of the man, the commonness of his "Gee, dearie" and "Say, you darling," his being swindled out of a hundred dollars by card sharpers on a train ride... after he had reached the White House, the rowdies of the Ohio gang were fundamentally his sort.<ref name=allen>Taylor, Frederick Allen (1931), ''Only Yesterday,'' ch. VI, "Harding and the Scandals"</ref>

::What needs to be noted is the conservativism of Harding's day consisted of these two things: [[isolationism]] and [[protectionism]].  This is what got him elected, and this is what he stood for.  Today, both these concepts have been entirely rejected by closed minded stuffed-shirt conservatives who are unwilling to change.  The Republican Party has repudiated these ideas.  Now, isolationism and protectionsim still exist in America, a few Republicans & conservatives like Buchanan, or Ross Perot, or Socialists like [[Richard Gebphardt]] embrace protectionism; isolationism is the dominant view among the so-called "liberal left" anti-war movement.  But the dominant "conservative" attitudes of Harding's era  bare scant resemblance to the dominant conservative views of today.

::What needs to be noted is the conservativism of Harding's day consisted of these two things: [[isolationism]] and [[protectionism]].  This is what got him elected, and this is what he stood for.  Today, both these concepts have been entirely rejected by closed minded stuffed-shirt conservatives who are unwilling to change.  The Republican Party has repudiated these ideas.  Now, isolationism and protectionsim still exist in America, a few Republicans & conservatives like Buchanan, or Ross Perot, or Socialists like [[Richard Gebphardt]] embrace protectionism; isolationism is the dominant view among the so-called "liberal left" anti-war movement.  But the dominant "conservative" attitudes of Harding's era  bare scant resemblance to the dominant conservative views of today.

:::Oh, goodness, I didn't want to get into the let's-boost-Harding/let's-bash-Harding thing. I was just thinking we could use something or other about what the man's personality was like. Taylor writing in 1931 would have been close enough to have been in the milieu and distant enough to have some objectivity. In case it isn't clear I'd like to put this in the article, but I wanted to get some talk about it first. I know that Frederick Lewis Taylor's "Only Yesterday" is famous and frequently referred to (and a very good read) but I don't know Taylor's own politics. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 21:46, 28 March 2007 (EDT)

:::Oh, goodness, I didn't want to get into the let's-boost-Harding/let's-bash-Harding thing. I was just thinking we could use something or other about what the man's personality was like. Taylor writing in 1931 would have been close enough to have been in the milieu and distant enough to have some objectivity. In case it isn't clear I'd like to put this in the article, but I wanted to get some talk about it first. I know that Frederick Lewis Allen "Only Yesterday" is famous and frequently referred to (and a very good read) but I don't know Allen's own politics. [[User:Dpbsmith|Dpbsmith]] 21:46, 28 March 2007 (EDT)

==References==

==References==

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