Woodrow Wilson vs. Calvin Coolidge

[TDAS04]

What do you think?

[ElectionsGuy]

Very easy choice of Coolidge for me.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Very easy choice of Coolidge for me.

Same here, but not because of Silent Cal's virtues.

[TDAS04]

Wilson did both more good and more bad.

[H. Ross Peron]

Wilson (D)

[Rockefeller GOP]

A pro-business fiscal conservative who was strongly in favor of anti-lunching and other civil rights legislation vs. a racist segregationist who governed as a fiscal liberal?  An absurdly easy choice.

Coolidge (R)

[Cassius]

Calvin Coolidge by a mile.

[Mopsus]

A pro-business fiscal conservative who was strongly in favor of anti-lunching and other civil rights legislation

Did Coolidge actually succeed in passing any anti-lynching or civil rights legislation though? As far as I know, the only race-based legislation that he signed while President was the blatantly racist Immigration Act of 1924.

[SWE]

Shot to the head

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

Coolidge.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

A pro-business fiscal conservative who was strongly in favor of anti-lunching and other civil rights legislation

Did Coolidge actually succeed in passing any anti-lynching or civil rights legislation though? As far as I know, the only race-based legislation that he signed while President was the blatantly racist Immigration Act of 1924.

I believe he signed the Native American Citizenship Act in the same year.

Also, why was Coolidge anti-lunching? It seems like that would seriously undercut Hoover's claims four years later of a "full lunch pale".

[Vega]

Wilson (D).

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Shot to the head

Yup.

[WalterMitty]

wilson.  he was one of the best.

[windjammer]

wilson.  he was one of the best.

[Rockefeller GOP]

A pro-business fiscal conservative who was strongly in favor of anti-lunching and other civil rights legislation

Did Coolidge actually succeed in passing any anti-lynching or civil rights legislation though? As far as I know, the only race-based legislation that he signed while President was the blatantly racist Immigration Act of 1924.

He publicly called for it, but as usual, all efforts would be killed by Democrats in Congress.

[ElectionsGuy]

A pro-business fiscal conservative who was strongly in favor of anti-lunching and other civil rights legislation

Did Coolidge actually succeed in passing any anti-lynching or civil rights legislation though? As far as I know, the only race-based legislation that he signed while President was the blatantly racist Immigration Act of 1924.

It was more xenephobic than racist. At that time, America was becoming more Catholic, Jewish, Irish, and Italian. It wasn't really about race.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Eugene Debs

[Mopsus]

A pro-business fiscal conservative who was strongly in favor of anti-lunching and other civil rights legislation

Did Coolidge actually succeed in passing any anti-lynching or civil rights legislation though? As far as I know, the only race-based legislation that he signed while President was the blatantly racist Immigration Act of 1924.

He publicly called for it, but as usual, all efforts would be killed by Democrats in Congress.

Certainly, Calvin Coolidge is to be lauded for his support of civil rights, and Woodrow Wilson is to be denounced for his opposition to the same. But if Coolidge failed to materialize his views in the form of improving the rights of non-whites (with the exception of signing the Indian Citizenship Act, as Cathcon pointed out), are Wilson and Coolidge functionally different on that issue?

A pro-business fiscal conservative who was strongly in favor of anti-lunching and other civil rights legislation

Did Coolidge actually succeed in passing any anti-lynching or civil rights legislation though? As far as I know, the only race-based legislation that he signed while President was the blatantly racist Immigration Act of 1924.

It was more xenephobic than racist. At that time, America was becoming more Catholic, Jewish, Irish, and Italian. It wasn't really about race.

Most Catholic, Jewish, and Orthodox immigrants were not viewed as "white" by the native WASP majority. So it was about race, although I'll grant that it was about religion, too.

[Rockefeller GOP]

MOP, yes I think there's absolutely a difference.  Just because the other party obstructed Coolidge's pro-civil rights goals does not equate him to an open segregationist...  Also, thought I'd drop these here:

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/05/calvin-coolidge-civil-rights-pioneer-91065_Page2.html

http://blog.independent.org/2009/12/13/not-so-silent-coolidge-and-civil-rights/

[Mopsus]

MOP, yes I think there's absolutely a difference.  Just because the other party obstructed Coolidge's pro-civil rights goals does not equate him to an open segregationist...

No, Coolidge was not on the same level as an open segregationist. I guess that my point is that if someone has more in common with Wilson's approach to government than with Coolidge's, but is troubled by Wilson's racism (as any modern observer should be), it isn't necessarily worth it to vote for Coolidge on account of that one issue, given that, whatever his personal feelings, the latter did no more to improve the rights of African-Americans in real terms than Wilson did.

[GaussLaw]

Coolidge. 

I don't like him, but Wilson's always struck me as kind of evil.

[Mechaman]

ITT there are some questions that you should not ask.  This is one of them.

[RogueBeaver]

Very easy choice of Coolidge for me.

[Maxwell]

One of the greats, Coolidge.