Kieran Healy

Could Have Been Worse

The OxBloggers have me down as a “Franklin Roosevelt.” I might have preferred Alexis de Tocqueville, but I guess I’ll settle for saving capitalism from itself. It could have been worse: I might have been Calvin Coolidge.

Comrade Reynolds as George Washington? Gosh, I’m suddenly reminded of Benjamin Bache’s crabby remark that “If ever a nation was debauched by a man, the American nation has been debauched by Washington. … [L]et the history of the Federal government instruct mankind, that the masque of patriotism may be worn to conceal the foulest designs against the liberties of the people.”