Can't argue too much against this
Who’s been the best US President?
- Thread starter esmufc07
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Buchanan actively supported the Dred Scott decision and sided with southerners over the admission of Kansas as a slave state under the Lecompton constitution. He also used the Scott decision as a political weapon against efforts to admit Kansas as a free state. It was his predecessor, Franklin Pierce that bumbled around with the Bleeding Kansas situation and let it get out of hand. Buchanan came in and actively took a side because he knew a slave holding Kansas would tilt congress to the Democrats side. He also campaigned for a federal slave code in response to the John Brown raid on Harpers Ferry.
He was a terrible president who very much knew what side he was on.
And he + his cabinets moved weapons from federal armouries into the Confederates hands in the days leading to secession.
Point remains, however, that any other Democratic President would ended up with pretty much the same actions. Pierce turned a blind eye to the filibusters invading Latin America for more slaves. The can had been kicked so far down the road that it had nowhere else to go by the late 1850s. There was no trust and no appetite for anymore compromise.
Johnson, on the other hand, actively fought his party (he was a War Democrat, i know) to satisfy his own allegiance to the slaveowners.
Johnson wasn’t just a War Democrat, he was always a Democrat... from as far back as the 1830s. He was never a Republican.
I’ve no issue with Johnson being ranked at dead last - I just disagree with the idea that Buchanan’s shithousery was the result of incompetence. He knew what he was doing.
Just to follow up on this, I don’t think Washington is given a token spot near the top just for being first. It was quite a novel experiment of governance for the time and everyone had fierce critics, including people like Thomas Jefferson who also draws broad approval now. So GW came under criticism like everyone else, but was the calm in the storm that held competing factions together.
As noted above he could have ruled til his death, and only ran for a second term because other power brokers talked him back into it as they feared for the future were anyone else in charge in those fragile early years.
FDR
Andrew Lincoln
FDR by a huge margin
No way. Reagan is closer to bottom 15. He'll earn the undying support of the right-wing but objectively he was a monstrosity. Iran-Contra Scandal alone was horrendous but then you have other Reagan era policies such that caused things like the Savings and Loan scandal, abolishing the Fairness Doctrine which directly led to the rise of Rush Limbaugh and modern far-right media, the anti-welfare state rhetoric that Clinton then accelerated and the same with the evils of the War on Drug, also which Clinton accelerated. The massive boondoggle that was "star wars"/SDI and much more fun little stuff under his "voodoo economics" supply-side bs. Some of that could be excused because he was almost certainly senile by the end of 1988 - which I supposed could make things better or worse for him personally but just shows how corrupt his administration actually was. His main accomplishment is supposed the collapse of the USSR but anyone studying economics objectively knows that was happening anyway and it was conventional US doctrine to "outspend and bankrupt the Soviets". Other than how the right-wing reveres him its hard to see how he could anywhere near the top half of Presidents.
It's Lincoln and it's not even close. GW #2 and FDR #3. Lincoln had to face the toughest crisis by far of those 3; GW had already overcome the major crisis of his lifetime by the time he rose to president and FDR oversaw a country fighting WW2 with one hand behind the back without any material effect (human/property damage) on the homeland itself to contend with. FDR even had plenty of time to falsely imprison tens of thousands of Japanese-Americans. On an objective level, James K. Polk was arguably the second most effective president after Honest Abe but his promotion of Jacksonian democracy, support of a pro-slavery agenda, and effects of his presidency leading to the civil war ultimately disqualifies him from any "best of" list.
Yup a common assertion is that if GW wanted to be king he could have probably made it happen some way. He really was the foremost promoter of a representative democracy and limits on duration of time in power. A lot of people don't know that presidential term limits were not enshrined in the constitution until the mid-20th century, presidents up until FDR voluntarily followed the principle set by GW in this regard (2 terms).
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It's interesting to see how former allies turned enemies due to politics among the founders, most notable being John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who were staunch friends before John Adams rise to the presidency, became fervent enemies throughout both men's terms as president, and only reconciled later in life partly due to Abigail Adams. A lot of this is portrayed in the letters between Adams and Jefferson that have been preserved to this day, pretty interesting read if you get a chance.
As cliche as it sounds, Lincoln, closely followed by FDR. Washington and the other Roosevelt after them, followed by...dunno, maybe Jefferson/Truman.
Interesting that no president after Truman is remembered as all-time great. I've seen scholars putting Eisenhower high, and some put Reagan and Obama at the bottom of top 10 or in top 15 (Clinton too typically makes top 15 or so), but that is far from all-time great. Bias for oldies, or just that the recent (post WW2) presidents were a bit of shit.
Interesting that no president after Truman is remembered as all-time great. I've seen scholars putting Eisenhower high, and some put Reagan and Obama at the bottom of top 10 or in top 15 (Clinton too typically makes top 15 or so), but that is far from all-time great. Bias for oldies, or just that the recent (post WW2) presidents were a bit of shit.
Probably scrutiny and accountability. You can't compare press (and specially free press) and the access to all kinds of information that exist nowadays, also the interest in politics. Before not even woman could vote and most of the people were political analphabets (if not completely analphabets) that if they had any interest in politics, would not go further than a few slogans for simpletons. Also, with the polarization of the political spectrum, you will always alienate half of the population...at least
Many of the ones on the worst list are also old.
Yes, but only the old ones are in the good list.
Damn you! I was speed reading this thread chanting “no one pick Whitmore, no one pick Whitmore”
You picked Whitmore
Danny Glover