Carter by competency, Wilson by values.
(Although you could say Wilson during his stroke was the worst in competence also).
He was racist, yes, but otherwise he was one of the most important progressive presidents ever and his liberal internationalist values were both moral and extremely important in reshaping US foreign policy for the better.
The internet's hate boner for Wilson in recent years will never cease to amaze me.
I genuinely can't believe I'm agreeing with you, let alone on internal Democratic Party discourse, but... This, a hundred times this.
Wilson's pivotal role on the international stage in freeing literally over half a dozen different nationalities from the yoke of imperial oppression far overshadow the rest of his legacy.
The problem with Wilson is that he was not only "a racist" but such that he represented a step backwards on race for the time. He not only segregated the Civil Service, but also promoted the Lost Cause in both media and academia, helping to spread nationally a narrative about the Civil War that had been isolated to the South and in so doing laid the groundwork for much of the opposition to Civil Rights in coming decades. This also has negative impacts to this day when it comes to the spread of misinformation about Civil War, Slavery and Reconstruction.
Also whatever credit Wilson gets for appointing Brandeis, he loses by having appointed McReynolds, a virulent racist, anti-Semite, and misogynist who would have to rank as one of the worst Justices in history on sheer unpleasantness. For a period comparison, he would be the Theodore Bilbo of the Supreme Court.
This also affected his foreign policy, as Wilson went out of his way to block the push by Japan for a clause condemning racial supremacy in the League of Nations.
Wilson was also a tyrant. He incarcerated critics of the draft and deported people based on speculation that they were “socialists”, and set the stage for the rise of J. Edgar Hoover.
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