But the Harding-Coolidge years were a period where Republicans governed successfully while being recognizably conservative by modern standards and demonstrably less racist than much of the Democratic Party. Coolidge did this without Warren G. Harding’s baggage or Herbert Hoover’s backsliding.

Instead, Silent Cal has been unfairly maligned in school textbooks and blamed by lazy liberal historians and Keynesian economists for causing the Great Depression. His immigration policy views may be back in style, but his commitment to fiscal discipline and smaller government is not.

Coolidge deserves better.

Samuel J. Abrams, contributor:

When asked to name a hero from American history, most people think of presidents, generals, or civil rights leaders. Mine is Harrison “Jack” Schmitt — geologist, Apollo 17 astronaut, U.S. senator, and the first scientist to walk on the moon.

I had the rare privilege of knowing Jack. Decades ago, he was generous enough to give me all the time I needed, patiently answering my many questions. What impressed me was not the singularity of his achievements but the consistency of his character. After helping write one of the great chapters in American history, he devoted himself to public service, scientific inquiry, and quiet citizenship. There was no self-importance in him, only intellectual seriousness, humility, curiosity, and a deep sense of obligation to the country he had served in extraordinary ways.

The Apollo program showed what a free society can achieve when it invests in knowledge and ambition. Jack spent the decades that followed demonstrating something equally important, namely that genuine greatness is measured not only by what we accomplish, but by the character with which we carry those accomplishments for the rest of our lives.

Tim Carney, senior political columnist: 

George Washington is a great hero of American history because of the decision he made not to seek a third term.

Revolutions are an ugly thing. There are many reasons the American Revolution didn’t look like the English Civil War, the French Revolution, or the Bolshevik Revolution, but a major reason was Washington refused to hold on to power. Had Washington sought a third term, he would have won. He would have also conformed the United States to the historical norm of revolutionary leaders becoming mini kings. Instead, he set a radical precedent of voluntarily ceding power.

Things didn’t go smoothly in his aftermath. Adams faltered and then lost, and the election of 1800 led to Aaron Burr killing Alexander Hamilton. But the bumpy ride was beneficial for the U.S.

Washington’s norm persisted for 150 years until FDR rejected it, at which point Congress concluded the two-term limit needed to be written into the Constitution. Voluntarily giving up power is rare in human history, and never has such a decision been as momentous as it was when Washington did it.

Conn Carroll, commentary editor:

My opinion of him has gone back and forth over the years, but I believe Theodore Roosevelt is an underrated American hero. Yes, he was a Rough Rider who made the U.S. a serious world power, strengthened the Navy, and helped build the Panama Canal, but he also had a deep appreciation of marriage and family as the cornerstone of American greatness.

Roosevelt actually wrote his thesis on “The Practicality of Giving Men and Women Equal Rights” and as a state legislator in New York he authored legislation that criminalized husbands beating their wives.

“It is in the life of the family, upon which in the last analysis the whole welfare of the nation rests,” Roosevelt once said, later adding, “No other success in life, not being president, or being wealthy, or going to college, or anything else, comes up to the success of the man and woman who can feel that they have done their duty and that their children and grandchildren rise up to call them blessed.”

Roosevelt’s attack on corporate monopolies, his “Square Deal” legislative agenda, and his failed effort to create the nation’s first child tax credit all were driven by his commitment to strengthening the American family.

Joe Concha, columnist:

My personal American hero is Ronald Wilson Reagan. 

An actor who became a governor, he ran for president in 1976 and nearly defeated Gerald Ford in the GOP primary. Undeterred, Reagan came back four years later, capturing the White House in a landslide victory over Jimmy Carter despite trailing most of the race.

In terms of consequential figures in American history, it’s hard to argue against Reagan. His defeat of the Soviet Union and communism without firing a shot was as stunning as it was incredible to witness. He was also the uniter in chief. He won a 49-state victory in 1984, and his relationship with House Speaker Tip O’Neill was built on compromise and friendship.

Reagan was a true American hero in every sense of the word.

Peter Cordi, contributors editor:

Nineteenth century evangelist Dwight L. Moody may not have won any elections or wars, but he arguably had as big an impact on America as any of his contemporaries. From Civil War battlegrounds to big cities across the country, Moody led countless souls to saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

For many evangelists, the story stops there — at conversion — but not for Moody. As much as he dedicated his life to the gospel, he also dedicated it to discipleship. He started a Sunday school in Chicago to reach impoverished kids and teach them to study the Bible and “walk in newness of life” (Romans 6:4).

But his story doesn’t stop at discipleship either. Through his Moody Bible Institute, thousands of students have been taught how to spread the gospel and disciple others to live for Jesus. Moody’s burden for souls was his defining characteristic — he would even pray for those offended at his preaching. While he inspired some of the greatest preachers of the 20th century, modern Christianity could use an injection of Moody’s unabashed zeal. True revival can’t come by taking over institutions, but only through Moody’s approach of winning souls one at a time.

Sean Durns, deputy commentary editor:

The obvious answers are George Washington or Abraham Lincoln. The former was the “indispensable man” whose leadership was essential to the creation of the republic. The latter was essential to its preservation during its most “fiery trial.”

But America is an aspirational nation. That is its strength. And both men seemed to be cast from marble. While not without mistakes, they are too unblemished, too distant, and too hard to relate to. From the vantage point of today, they seem more like gods than men. This doesn’t detract from their greatness but it means that the examples that they set seem to be out of reach for us mortals.

My vote goes to Ulysses S. Grant. He was far from perfect, and that is his strength. As one documentary quipped, he was “a failure in everything in life except marriage and war.” Grant was all too human. He drank too much. He was too trusting of men and too easily fell prey to their schemes. He was terrible with money.

But Grant was a fundamentally decent man at a time in this country’s history when it really mattered. He was simple and unassuming. His writing, a master class in utility, was plain and unadorned. He led by example and was honest and loyal. He was gentle with animals. As he wrote in his memoirs, he had a fundamental aversion to “turning back.” This, for better or worse, is a distinctly American trait. And in Grant’s case, it saved the Union.

David Harsanyi, senior writer: 

On July 5, 1852, former slave Frederick Douglass stood up at a Rochester gathering of abolitionists and delivered a blistering critique of American hypocrisy in a speech titled, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July.” It is also one of the most profound defenses of the American project in history.

The signers of the Declaration of Independence, Douglass argued, were “brave” and “great” men and the Constitution had provided a “frame to a great age” and the “genius of American Institutions.” Douglass condemned the pretense of liberty when black families were being torn apart by chattel slavery and denied the “great principles of political freedom and of natural justice.”

There was no state or ideology that justified stripping man, whatever his color, of inalienable rights. After the passage of the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850, Douglass editorialized that the best remedy was “a good revolver, a steady hand, and a determination to shoot down any man attempting to kidnap.” Never falling back on cynicism or victimhood, and rejecting the racial identitarian ideas so popular in contemporary times, Douglass was one of the most passionate and fearless champions of liberty we have ever known. 

Peter Laffin, senior editor:

Thomas Jefferson wrote that “the constitutional freedom of religion is the most inalienable and sacred of all human rights.” And perhaps no American exercised this right more eloquently and fearlessly than Venerable Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen.

I discovered Sheen on YouTube shortly after converting to Catholicism in my mid-20s, where old episodes of his television show Life is Worth Living seemed to answer, one by one, every question I had about the religion I’d somewhat blindly surrendered to. Draped in his cassock and sweeping cape, chalk in hand, Sheen delivered lyrical and stirring lectures in 30-minute segments, filmed live and without a single retake. At its peak from 1952 to 1957, the show drew as many as 30 million viewers a week — roughly 12 times what Jimmy Kimmel draws today from a population half the size. All of this came before America’s JFK-inspired reckoning with Catholicism.

Sheen was a cultural rock amid the anxieties of atomic dread and social revolution. His fierce rebukes of communism and unabashed love for America, expressed not in the campy aesthetics of modern patriotic displays but with the nobility and cogency of a statesman, served as a civilizational anchor for a society adrift. 

It’s hard to imagine who I’d be without him. Harder still to imagine what America would be.

Tom Rogan, foreign policy writer and editor:

I’d say Abraham Lincoln, but that wouldn’t be very original.

Instead, I’ll point to Harry Truman. As a young man, Truman volunteered to serve his country in uniform. He then led successfully as an artillery officer during World War I. As president, Truman would successfully conclude World War II in a way that minimized further casualties on all sides. Forcefully resisting the Soviet Union’s brinkmanship in Berlin and South Korea, he laid the foundation for America’s ultimate victory in the Cold War.

It also bears noting that while Truman formed an enduring political relationship and friendship with Missouri political boss Tom Pendergast, his personal integrity shielded him from being tarred with Pendergast’s corruption. An important element of Truman’s legacy is its proof that decency and strength are natural companions rather than, as some of today’s political leaders imagine, mortal enemies.