Who was the Worst American President?

[Mike Cl]

And that was a bad sign from the beginning (as if there weren't plenty already), that this first decision of a potential presidency he couldn't be bothered to make for himself.

I knew when he traded Sammy Sosa he was not gifted in the stuff upstairs.

[Jason Harvestdancer]

What a bunch of under-informed short-sighted partisan hacks.  "The most recent guy of the hated other party is the worst president ever."  Give me a fucking break.

[Minimalist]

Bush was the worst.


Nixon was the most crooked.


(And I voted for Nixon twice.)

[Mike Cl]

What a bunch of under-informed short-sighted partisan hacks.  "The most recent guy of the hated other party is the worst president ever."  Give me a fucking break.

Well, then Jason, pray tell, who is your actual worst.  Why?

[Gerard]

Just about any Democrat from the 19th century will do..... They did improve somewhat after that.

Gerard

[Gerard]

Recent or not, W made some very bad choices. His party has gone quite "berserk" during and after his 'leadership' of it. In the days of W and Cheney, political culture in his party became extremely narrow ideological and closed minded. They made everybody other than them the enemy. That didn't enhance the quality of his Presidency. It didn't do much for his party and US politics in general either. The Reagan days were blissful in comparison.

Gerard

[Hydra009]

What a bunch of under-informed short-sighted partisan hacks.  "The most recent guy of the hated other party is the worst president ever."  Give me a fucking break.

"People have opinions different from mine!"  The horror.

[Jason Harvestdancer]

Well, then Jason, pray tell, who is your actual worst.  Why?

Woodrow Wilson.

He brought us the Income Tax, he brought us the Federal Reserve, he brought the US into World War One (1914-1989) which he had promised to keep us out of, he was a Klansman who continued discriminatory policies, he was quite nasty to Native Americans, and criminalized all dissent against him.

Compared to that, can you honestly say Reagan or Clinton or Bush or Obama really make the cut?

Furthermore...

After the Tzars of Russia fell due to the great war, it was Wilson who pressured the Russian Republican to stay in World War One, enabling Lenin to stage a second revolution creating the Soviet Union.  He campaigned for reelection on having kept the US out of war while simultaneously doing everything he could to bring the US into the war and giving direct support to Britain and France.  Hell, when the US actually entered that war it was more of a "final step" then a major change in situation.  He also was the last US president to use the military against Mexico.  He also intervened in Haiti, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba because he felt that it was his responsibility to "teach South American republics to elect good men."  His words.

Although some people consider this debatable, it can very strongly be argued that Wilson's actions in World War One are what led to a western victory instead of a negotiated cease fire and peace.  Since Germany had been forced to surrender in order to end the war, this enabled France to impose very harsh terms on Germany which in turn led to the rise of political extremism in Germany and World War Two.

While waging World War One he directly attacked civil liberty by banning criticism through the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act.  It was the Espionage Act that was used to threaten Snowden and Manning.  One of my harsher criticisms of Obama is his use of the Espionage Act against whistleblowers.

He supported the Prohibition amendment.  There is only one good thing that can be said about that: the supporters still had enough respect for the constitution to made an amendment to give new powers to the government, unlike our current drug war.  The constitutionality of prohibition is the only good thing that can be said about it, and even that isn't very good.  It laid the ground work for our current drug war, too. which is happening without even the benefit of constitutionality.  It took another awful president (interestingly enough of the same party) to reverse that awful decision.

By supporting World War One and also the Federal Reserve his policies led directly to the crash of 1921, and less directly for the crash of 1929.  Our currency is worth 98% less than it was thanks to this act backed by Wilson, although there are many people who somehow have come to think of this as a good thing.  He also supported the amendment that led to the income tax, which is also something where there are many people who somehow have come to think of this as a good thing.

Unlike the current attitude of "you just said something that if I interpret it a certain way could possibly indicate that you once were in the same city as a racist" attacks that dominate modern politics, Wilson was a pretty unabashed racist.  His record on civil rights would make the modern social justice warriors blush.

[Mike Cl]

Furthermore...

After the Tzars of Russia fell due to the great war, it was Wilson who pressured the Russian Republican to stay in World War One, enabling Lenin to stage a second revolution creating the Soviet Union.  He campaigned for reelection on having kept the US out of war while simultaneously doing everything he could to bring the US into the war and giving direct support to Britain and France.  Hell, when the US actually entered that war it was more of a "final step" then a major change in situation.  He also was the last US president to use the military against Mexico.  He also intervened in Haiti, Panama, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba because he felt that it was his responsibility to "teach South American republics to elect good men."  His words.

Although some people consider this debatable, it can very strongly be argued that Wilson's actions in World War One are what led to a western victory instead of a negotiated cease fire and peace.  Since Germany had been forced to surrender in order to end the war, this enabled France to impose very harsh terms on Germany which in turn led to the rise of political extremism in Germany and World War Two.

While waging World War One he directly attacked civil liberty by banning criticism through the Espionage Act and the Sedition Act.  It was the Espionage Act that was used to threaten Snowden and Manning.  One of my harsher criticisms of Obama is his use of the Espionage Act against whistleblowers.

He supported the Prohibition amendment.  There is only one good thing that can be said about that: the supporters still had enough respect for the constitution to made an amendment to give new powers to the government, unlike our current drug war.  The constitutionality of prohibition is the only good thing that can be said about it, and even that isn't very good.  It laid the ground work for our current drug war, too. which is happening without even the benefit of constitutionality.  It took another awful president (interestingly enough of the same party) to reverse that awful decision.

By supporting World War One and also the Federal Reserve his policies led directly to the crash of 1921, and less directly for the crash of 1929.  Our currency is worth 98% less than it was thanks to this act backed by Wilson, although there are many people who somehow have come to think of this as a good thing.  He also supported the amendment that led to the income tax, which is also something where there are many people who somehow have come to think of this as a good thing.

Unlike the current attitude of "you just said something that if I interpret it a certain way could possibly indicate that you once were in the same city as a racist" attacks that dominate modern politics, Wilson was a pretty unabashed racist.  His record on civil rights would make the modern social justice warriors blush.

Good post.  I was never a Wilson fan, and even less so of his wife, who one could say was our first female president.  And WWI has a much bigger impact on our latest , misadventures in the Mid East than most people think.  I still would say that W/cheney have a real shot of being even worse with the passing of time. 

[trdsf]

Good post.  I was never a Wilson fan, and even less so of his wife, who one could say was our first female president.  And WWI has a much bigger impact on our latest , misadventures in the Mid East than most people think.  I still would say that W/cheney have a real shot of being even worse with the passing of time.

I think that's the main thing, it takes time to be able to stand back and make a clearer judgment.  Certainly every president in my lifetime, I've seen both praised and reviled in turns, as well as several recent historical ones.

That said, the case that can be brought against Dubya is a strong one on every front by which one can judge a presidency, and I suspect the analysis will stand up over time that he is a bottom-shelf president.

[Mike Cl]

I think that's the main thing, it takes time to be able to stand back and make a clearer judgment.  Certainly every president in my lifetime, I've seen both praised and reviled in turns, as well as several recent historical ones.

That said, the case that can be brought against Dubya is a strong one on every front by which one can judge a presidency, and I suspect the analysis will stand up over time that he is a bottom-shelf president.

Yeah, I think Wilson can see that there is more than enough room at the bottom for both of them.  And W/Cheney have more than enough talent to go even deeper. 

All presidents are flawed.  They are men.  And by the time they have enough political clout to run for president, they are tainted by the system (compromised any eithics they may have espoused) before being elected.  So, I am mildly surprised that any of them do "good".  There is not a single president that has not done something I don't like.  And very few that have not done something I do like.  So, it is a matter of degree.  And W, for me, sinks to the bottom of that scale=huge amounts of don't like and only a tiny amount of do like; Wilson has more do likes, but there is room at the bottom for him, too. 

[Atheon]

The only Republican I ever voted for was a pro-gay Republican mayor who was running against a looney-right fundie Democratic contender. Local politics can be funny.

[Gerard]

Did you know that Martin van Buren (8th President) had Dutch as his mother language? Which makes him the only President that didn't have English as his mother tongue? Not that that made him a better President, but still.....

Gerard

[trdsf]

The only Republican I ever voted for was a pro-gay Republican mayor who was running against a looney-right fundie Democratic contender. Local politics can be funny.

Yeah, we had the same thing happen here back in the late '90s, where the Republican candidate ran to the left of the Democrat, got the endorsement of the local Stonewall and everything.  She'd probably still be in the statehouse if we didn't have term limits.  I haven't voted for any Republican since the attempted coup d'etat in 1998 though -- and now we know that all three Republican speakers who sheparded through the impeachment (Newt Gingrich, Bob Livingston and Denny Hastert, as well as Witchfinder General Henry Hyde) had their own "little indiscretions", though Hastert's appears more ominous than just getting a little on the side.

[platatomi]

Jackson is up there for me - Native American genocide, killing the national bank, initiating an economic crisis, and disobeying the supreme court. About the only positive thing I can think of is his standing up against secession movements in the south.

Of course GW, Reagan, etc are on the list. I don't have a definite ranking.