What if Hoover Was President Earlier?

Herbert Hoover is considered one of the worst presidents in US history. And he was a bad president. But things could have been far different if he simply decided to run for office eight years earlier. Despite his bad reputation now, Hoover was once popular for his charity and philanthropy. What if he had ran in 1920 instead of 1928?

[AlternateHistoryHub]

This is a collab with Mr. Beat and Emperor Tigerstar! They made their own presidential alternate histories too.

What if Lincoln Didn't Win: shorturl.at/nORSV
What if Henry Clay Won: shorturl.at/glmEO

[LibraSnakeLibraSnake]

Crazy the similarities between Hoover and Carter, despite them being in different parties, from different parts of the country, and having very different political views. Both oversaw periods of economic turmoil, got kicked out of office in landslides after one term, and were generally viewed as bad presidents, but they both stayed alive for decades after and rehabilitated their public images through philanthropy and public service

[lampcrow]

He DID run in 1920, but the convention was moronic and nominated Harding instead. Double whammy of bad luck there for Herbert.

[WOLF]

I know Herbert Hoover is hated in America but here in Belgium he saved us from famine during the German occupation in WW1. We should replace all those Leopold II statues with Hoover statues.

[aussiegod]

Herbert Hoover: At least I was a decent person.

Society: Unfortunately for you history will not see it that way.

[doublepiedavid]

"Nobody remembers Calvin Coolidge"

American Libertarians: "Allow us to introduce ourselves"

[pattersong]

Fun fact: Hoover IRL tried to do a comeback run for the Presidency in 1940, 8 years after he lost overwhelmingly. The Republican Convention of 1940 looked at the prospect of a Hoover comeback dragging the rest of the ticket down and was just "Thanks but no thanks" and went with Wendell Willkie instead.

[michaelman]

It's so ironic that Hoover didn't want direct government intervention... but then spent the Depression making deals with CEOs and unions, passing massive tarrifs, and basically doing all the FDR stuff before FDR

[iammrbeat]

I am so happy I manipulated you into making this video. Mwhahahahahahahahahahahahaha

[vjoe]

7:21 oof, poor Coolidge. I find it extremely sad that very few people even remember Coolidge's presidency. I personally really like the guy and he had one very interesting political life. First he started out as a lawyer, slowly climbing up the political ladder within the Republican Party, eventually landing him as the 48th Governor for Massachusetts and later the Vice President to President Warren G. Harding. After Harding's sudden passing, Coolidge would be woken up in the middle of the night, get sworn in by his own father, and immediately go back to sleep like he didn't just become the 30th POTUS.

Coolidge did a lot of cool things while in office. He managed to restore public confidence in the White House by firing/imprisoning those who were a part of the Teapot Dome Scandal, he was a huge supporter of women's suffrage, he opposed prohibition, he dramatically cut back on government spending and managed to make 3 major tax cuts, he shrunk the federal debt by 1 quarter, he's one of the few presidents that managed to shrink the power and amount of people that served in the federal government, he was a supporter of Civil Rights (going as far as to make an attempt at making lynching a federal crime), he signed the Indian Citizenship Act, he made attempts to help Germany with it's war debt by creating the Dawes Plan, he helped aid the Mexican government to help stabilise them and strengthen our alliance with them, he strengthened ties with Cuba (he was also the first president to visit the island nation), he withdrew troops from the Dominican Republic to help get them back on their feet, and he made sure that no members of the KKK worked within the federal government.

Along with all of these accomplishments, he was also a very interesting person. He was quite introverted and didn't speak much (commonly being referred to as "Silent Cal." Some people even debate as to whether or not Coolidge, like Jefferson, had aspergers). He was also a huge animal lover who, similarly to Teddy Roosevelt, turned the White House into somewhat of a zoo (the guy even owned a friggin hippo named Billy for Christ's sake! Oh yeah, he also pardoned a raccoon that would later become his wife’s pet. The raccoon was named Rebecca). He was also a fervent non-interventionist, however he was willing to aid foreign nations when absolutely necessary. Despite being a Republican president, he was (rightfully) skeptical over his successor (Herbert Hoover) and felt like he’d mess up the economy (he was wrong about Hoover being the person who was responsible for destroying the economy, however his prediction of Hoover making things worse would turn out to be correct). After running a very successful presidency and being one of the most popular presidents during his own lifetime, he declined to run for a second term because he didn't think any president deserved to serve for more than 8 years, he no longer could relate to the new generation of Americans, and because he was very emotionally damaged after the loss of one of his sons.

The man was humble, calm, and considerate. Calvin Coolidge has become my 3rd favorite U.S. president in the last 2 years (only being beat out by Washington, Lincoln, and Teddy. Washington and Lincoln are tied for 1st btw, which technically makes Coolidge my 3rd favorite president). It's an absolute shame that people don't remember him, making him easily one of the most underrated and forgotten presidents in U.S. history. Lastly, here are some of his famous quotes that I feel are just as relevant today as they were back then:

“Unless the people, through unified action, arise and take charge of their government, they will find that their government has taken charge of them. Independence and liberty will be gone, and the general public will find itself in a condition of servitude to an aggregation of organized and selfish interest.”

“The nation which forgets its defender will be itself forgotten.”

“Don’t expect to pull up the weak by pulling down the strong.”

“The wise and correct course to follow in taxation is not to destroy those who have already secured success but to create conditions under which everyone will have a better chance at success.”

“The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager.”

“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. This is the chief meaning of freedom.”

- Former U.S. President, Calvin Coolidge

Edit: Grammar/spelling and I also wanted to add some additional information about Coolidge. Have a good day and thx to the people who read the entire comment. Hopefully some people walk away with a new found interest and appreciation for Silent Cal :)

[avatarmikephantom]

Just finished a book on him today. Super underrated man in history, and deserves a change in how we learn about him. History class is unfair to him.

[deltalord]

Growing up being taught in school about the great depression i have to say hoover wasnt really done any favors, dude was basically a scape goat beating stick every teacher used on how not to be a president

[chancellorgumbo]

For someone who had the hoover named after him, he sure couldn't clean up his act

[grimtopia]

Putting this one out but saying "Hoover of the 80s" feels incredibly cursed.

[jpj]

I'd recommend 1920: The Year of 6 Presidents as a good read. Teddy Roosevelt was angling to be the compromise candidate in 1920, watching Wilson in office helped bury some hatchets, but then Teddy Roosevelt up and died creating chaos.

[nathanseper]

Hoover was an example of someone who came in at the precisely wrong moment of history.

[ceesjhay]

Small correction about the Smoot-Hawley Tariff:
The tariffs were taxes on *imported* foreign goods rather than exported American goods, so the idea was to raise the price of *foreign* goods in order to make American goods more competitive domestically and protect American industry. American exports rose in price as a result of retaliatory tariffs.

Timestamp: 11:45

[lukedaduke]

In the French city of Lille, you will find a street named for Herbert Hoover. This confused me. Until I read about he saved much of the city and greater NE France-Flanders-wallonia region from starving. This guy meant much more to those people then to us. I found that very interesting

[arthurcooperman]

5:54 weird connection but my dad trained at Fort Leonard Wood, and I had no idea who Leonard Wood was until now. It's crazy there are always small details of information that I learn from these videos that I would have never known if not for these videos.

[janthecoo]

now why does that bit around 11:45 remind me of current events?