Warren Harding is a vastly underrated US President

My opponent claims that Harding’s interventionist stance and refusal to join the League of Nations actually made WWII worse than it could have been. The reason he didn’t join the league was that first of all, a majority of the American people were opposed to it, and he knew that joining would mean that other nations would have a say in American affairs and we would be beholden to foreign powers. You could say a President who joined the League of Nations was being unpatriotic because they were putting European interests above those of America. Joining such a league may in fact have put us in a position where we would be us less likely to resist Germany later and crippling us by the time WWII came around even though as losers in WWI Germany would be closely guarded and not allowed to join initially, however they were still allowed to join eventually. Due to the German’s resentment at being held responsible and the reparations ruining their economy, it is likely it in fact encouraged them to go to war. It would also have threatened American sovereignty. The truth is the American people still had an isolationist mentality and a president who resists the will of the people should not be considered an effective president or could even be considered a tyrant. They also didn’t want to get involved in another War. [1] If America had been required to get involved in the affairs of other countries it would likely have had a negative effect on our economy as Europe already was having trouble paying off their debts to us. I do give Andrew Mellon credit for the economy; however it was Harding who approved of the ideas. As for Hoover, he was not as well received and clashed with Mellon constantly. Shortly after he became president himself the economy was in shambles and he failed to turn it around like Harding had done in 1921 even though he had kept on Mellon as secretary of the Treasury. Appointing friends could be a sign of corruption but could also mean that you are using those you think you can trust. Lots of presidents appoint friends to their administration the everybody else is doing it excuse doesn’t necessarily make it right but it does reduce the corruption charge for Harding when we look at him relative to other presidents; some examples being JFK appointing his brother (Robert) to his administration than selecting his other brother (Ted) to replace him in the senate a form of nepotism worse than what Harding did, also Barack Obama choosing Rahm Emmanuel as his chief of staff, the two knew each other from Chicago. One of my opponent’s own sources shows that Jesse Smith committed suicide when Harding tried to get him to leave. It seems like Harding was actually trying to get rid of corruption. Now to compare Harding to a few other administrations to see the level of corruption: Let us first look at John Adams, he issued the Alien and Sedition act which made it a crime to speak out against him, essentially violating the first Amendment. [2] There have also been similar acts throughout American History but nothing like that during Harding’s administration. How about FDR’s internment of American citizens who just happened to be of Japanese descent? True we were at war with Japan but these people were citizens. When it comes to corruption there were American Presidents far more corrupt than Harding even if we attribute the corruption of his cabinet directly to him. Finally, I must reiterate the importance of a president sticking to his mandate as so many have abandoned theirs once they get to office and Harding’s mandate was normalcy. [3] This also would have been less likely to have worked if we were constantly worrying about European affairs. I thank my opponent for his arguments. 1 http://www.johndclare.net... League of Nations2 http://americanhistory.about.com...3 http://teachingamericanhistory.org...