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Townhall
Presidents' Day
Musings
Larry Kudlow
Feb 15, 2015
Let me begin with Presidents' Day. It's a nice long weekend. But it
says nothing about the greatness of certain American presidents.
Whatever happened to Washington's Birthday? Or Lincoln's Birthday? Of
course, I could go for Reagan's Birthday. And I'll bet my pal Amity
Shlaes would pull for Coolidge's Birthday.
Whatever your favorite president's birthday might be, you must admit
that not all presidents were made the same. I still believe Founding
Father George Washington was our greatest president, with Lincoln a
close second. But Millard Fillmore, James Buchanan, James Garfield and
Jimmy Carter aren't in the running.
I knew Millard Fillmore, and Millard Fillmore was no Abe Lincoln.
But seriously, why can't we celebrate true American greatness? This
stuff about all Little Leaguers getting trophies is nonsense. Not every
president gets a trophy either.
Last week I had a wonderful talk with Glenn Beck on TheBlaze. He asked
me if I was a "classical liberal." I said, "Absolutely." I named
Friedrich Hayek and could have mentioned Milton Friedman, Ludwig von
Mises, or Arthur Laffer.
But I got to thinking about four-time 19th century British prime
minister William Gladstone. I told Beck that if I had lived back then,
I would have been a Gladstonian. His classical liberalism included
smaller government, lower taxes, free trade and individual liberty. I
told him that's the direction I want today's GOP to go.
But something was scratching my aging brain when I got home from the
Beck interview. So I Googled "Gladstonian Republicans." Sure enough, I
found a Wall Street Journal op-ed by John Micklethwait and Adrian
Wooldridge. They described how Gladstone cut the size of government by
a quarter over three decades, while Britain was the world's superpower
and the British population jumped by 50 percent...
Read the rest of the article at Townhall
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