Amercans: Who are your top and bottom 3 presidents from 1900 onward and why?

[Jack V Savage]

Any libs who put FDR in top 3 better explain how they can do so given the internment camps.

Winning WWII, Social Security, Emergency Banking Act (established the FDIC, among other things), 40-hour work week, UN, child-labor laws--that's just the big stuff. Like everyone, there were also negatives, but he's an easy No. 1 in terms of making positive changes in the lives of Americans.

I don't think you can really rate presidents like they were pitchers, and if you could, you'd need a really deep knowledge of all the candidates. Obama and LBJ also really stand out according to the criterion I mentioned (positive change), though (LBJ also had some big negatives, though, which makes it hard to place him overall). Bush and Hoover were the really conspicuous failures in the listed period. Reagan was successful at making big changes but the impact was negative.

 

[Peteyandjia]

Top:

1. FeDoR = GOAT


Worst:

1. GWB
2. Truman
3. Reagan

 

[Trotsky]

Any libs who put FDR in top 3 better explain how they can do so given the internment camps.

Because effective presidents can do awful things, good man can commit bad acts.

Not everyone is a bifurcated moron.

 

[Trotsky]

OK, a first pass at this:

good
Eisenhower
Truman
Reagan

bad
Carter
Woodrow Wilson
Ford

edit:
I think an additional rule should be to keep Obama out. His administration is still too close to use to really have a good perspective and unemotional analysis. I also think both your top three and bottom three should include at least one Dem and one Repub.

Having both Eisenhower and Reagan in the top 3 is ludicrous given they had nearly diametrically opposite economic views; Reagan began the GOP trajectory in the opposite direction that Eisenhower had taken it.

Really, having Reagan in any top 3 and Wilson in any bottom 3 is indefensible.

 

[Trotsky]

Top 3:
Polk (D)
Eisenhower (R)
FDR (D)

Please explain.

Most overrated:
JFK (D) by far

I used to think this, but his exceptional foreign policy, leadership, and the fact that without his veto the military would have conducted false flags on American citizens to justify invading Cuba....those nudge him away from the title imo.

Most underrated:
Nixon (R) by far

Edit: will add reasoning later

Wholly agreed.

He was a dictatorial piece of shit who committed heinous war crimes, but he was an effective domestic president.

 

[44nutman]

Any libs who put FDR in top 3 better explain how they can do so given the internment camps.

Any conservative that has Eisenhower in the top 3, explain how they can given his 90% tax rate on the wealthy.

 

[BangersAndSmash]

Good:
FDR - New Deal, Progressive Policy, WWII, set-up the post-war years
Teddy- land preservation, Trust-busting, took a bullet at a speech and finished the GD speech!
Eisenhower- (although I didn't like how he let the CIA operate with impunity, but I think by the end of his last term he didn't like that either.)- continued solid post-war policies, made some moves on civil rights during times when it was difficult, Interstate Highway System, and kept big corporations largely in check, keeping a high tax rate among other things
Honorable mention: JFK seemed to be heading in the right direction, but....

Bad:
Nixon- shit handling of Vietnam (not alone in this), paranoid douche, used racism to win votes, started war on poverty and drugs and all those shit loser policies.
Regean- continued many policies of Nixon and used same race-baiting strategies to win elections, except he also created trickle-down economics, aka deregulate finance and use the increased tax burden of the poor to subsidize the investments of the rich. Also increased prison population by a ton and lengthen prison sentences and make big arrests for non-violent drug crimes and prevent prisoners from ever integrating back into society under any feasible circumstances.
Clinton - pushed a few socially progressive policies but otherwise completely sold out and turned the democrats into an indistinguishable party from the pro-rich Regean republicans. He even kept all that war on drug hard on crime bullshit and pushed more de-regulation of the financial industry.
Honorable Mention: Warren G. Harding- Teapot. Dome. Scandal. Motherfucker.

 

[Sir Galahad]

Obama was the worst president in our history. This is the most obvious, because he stands out by far with creating more debt and creating more division this country has ever seen. His wife also created the worst school lunch one can imagine!

Truth. @Pwent @ripskater @silicavaginitis

 

[Falsedawn]

Top:
FDR
Eisenhower
Nixon

Bottom:
GWB
Carter
Reagan

 

[DannyNL]

Other than the water gate scandal and his corruption, I actually think Nixon had a lot of good stuff during his presidency. Ending the war in Vietnam and the draft in the military, founding the EPA, funding cancer research, lowered the voting age, normalized relations with China, pro-woman stance, helped desegregate a lot of schools/colleges/businesses/etc., etc.

Nixon accomplished quite a bit. It's too bad that his tenure ended in corruption.

Great points, shows there is always two sides to the coin.

 

[Rod1]

Having both Eisenhower and Reagan in the top 3 is ludicrous given they had nearly diametrically opposite economic views; Reagan began the GOP trajectory in the opposite direction that Eisenhower had taken it.

Really, having Reagan in any top 3 and Wilson in any bottom 3 is indefensible.

Wilson overt racism against blacks is just too much for me to have much respect for the guy.

 

[Rod1]

Eisenhower is in my opinion the best American president of the XX century.

 

[DannyNL]

Really, having Reagan in any top 3 and Wilson in any bottom 3 is indefensible.

I've seen a couple of people list Reagan in the worst... why was he so bad? Didn't he have a great economic impact on the country?

 

[Pwent]

1-Hoover-should be obvious
2-Clinton-his legislation caused the great recession
3-Obama/GWB- divisive and traded our citizens' privacy and freedoms for security, endless war, globalism

obama is basically black bush who also poured gasoline on the fires of cultural division. I can't rate him worse than bush since most of his faults (government spying, war, globalism etc.) were trends set by dubya. theyre a tie imo

 

[BangersAndSmash]

I've seen a couple of people list Reagan in the worst... why was he so bad? Didn't he have a great economic impact on the country?

He was great if you're rich. He sucked if you were poor, or worked in factory, or smoked weed, or were black, or gay, or..really just if you weren't rich.

 

[hillelslovak87]

Best

Eisenhower. Excellent financial and domestic policies that helped so many americans for generations, along with a resistance of the military industrial complex even though he was a military man

Kennedy. Steadfastly refused to go to war while dubious people in the military leadership were about as hawkish and suicidal as possible.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt - Took us out of the depression, gave us critical leadership in WW2, massive amounts of public works, dams and infrastructure overhaul, and a tax and financial system that gave the US a golden age for about 35 years.

Worst - George W Bush. Two wars on the nation's credit card, domestic spying by government agencies, overreaching and authoritarian patriot act, acting like a boor on the international stage, tax cuts for the rich with spending cuts in education and child services, failing to act responsibly during a few crisis moments, further deregulating the banking system which gave us the great recession, and took our budget from a surplus to a gigantic deficit.

Ronald Reagan - Iran/Contra, took America from the largest creditor nation on earth to the largest debtor nation on earth within his first term, sold weapons for hostages, invaded Grenada for no reason in violation of international law, financial policies aimed at helping nobody but the rich, rampant corruption and criminality within his cabinet, and he armed terrorists in many countries, making an equivalency between them and our founding fathers.

Maybe Wilson or Harding? Both were racists, both bent over to bankers and had their policies written by bankers, while fucking over millions upon millions of Americans up until the present day.

 

[Trotsky]

I've seen a couple of people list Reagan in the worst... why was he so bad? Didn't he have a great economic impact on the country?

He has had by far the most destructive impact on American economics and politics of any figure in the modern era. Yes, his deregulation caused an economic boom and reestablished the boom-bust cycle of capitalism that was staved by the New Deal economic era: it also destabilized the economy, created a neoliberal consensus in the political duopoly that citizen welfare would be subsidiary to corporate profit, moved the GOP away from any hint of economic coherency besides rich bootlicking and talking points about overregulation, redistributed wealth upward to the super-rich and destroyed the middle class, mobilized the GOP against the environment....the list really does go on forever.

He was a polished speaker, but policy-wise I don't think it's arguable that any other president has had the negative impact on US history that Reagan did, both in damaging the economy/wealth distribution and in leading the GOP down the path that has led it to its current state of reactionary nonsense. He was also largely responsible for the subsequent rise of Clintonism in the Democratic Party that affirmed the neoliberal consensus.

 

[Trotsky]

Wilson overt racism against blacks is just too much for me to have much respect for the guy.

I certainly hold no love for the man, but he was competent enough to avoid being mentioned among the GWB's and Reagan's of the world.

 

[BangersAndSmash]

I certainly hold no love for the man, but he was competent enough to avoid being mentioned among the GWB's and Reagan's of the world.

It's hard to get noticed for being shitty when your successor is William Motherfucking G. Harding.

 

[Shoemaker]

I'd ask that Trump be excluded from either list given the fact that he's only a little over half a year into his term and I'd rather not see this turn into another tired "pro Trump vs anti Trump" thread.

I think an additional rule should be to keep Obama out. His administration is still too close to use to really have a good perspective and unemotional analysis. I also think both your top three and bottom three should include at least one Dem and one Repub.

Well it was worth a shot, anyway.