Presidential Rankings

[Filuwaúrdjan]

FDR was the greatest President ever, and you can't change my mind on that.

More on others soon(ish)

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I think of lot of people are confusing good and great.

Nixon was a terrible President who abused his power and ruled a country that had been democratic for almost 200 years like a dictator.
However he was also *great* as he casts a very long shadow.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

They were defending Texas from North Vietnam goddammit!

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Right now Reagan needs all the help he can get...

As far as the Cold War goes, the U.S.S.R collapsed because it had to(see: Davies, "Europe. A History")

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I think that the most under-rated president is LBJ, while the most over-rated is Lincoln.

LBJ's domestic policies helped millions of people escape from poverty and gave Blacks basic civil rights.

I don't like Lincoln.
He is usually credited as freeing the slaves and ending the Civil War.

Lincoln caused the Civil War(which was NOT about slavery, which although a terrible institution would have died out within a few years as it would have become economically stupid), he only freed the slaves(most of which continued to work for very bad wages under their old masters and on the same plantations),  because it would ruin the economy of the south.
He was an abominable racist(his view of Black people apparently shocked many southern congressmen) and did nothing to help black people other than a token proclamation of their freedom.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

I don't think that the Civil War was inevitable.
Certainly had either the Official Democrats or the Constitutional Union party won the war would have been averted.

It's got to be remembered that only the extreme Abolitionists(eg. John Brown) and the Fire Eaters(eg. SC legislature) actually wanted a war.
Lincoln was not directly responsible(and I doubt that he wanted a war), but he was indirectly responsible as he and the rest of the Republican party were very divisive.

I don't have a problem with Lincoln himself, he was a flawed giant, but I do have a problem with the cult that has grown up around him.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

LBJ was great just as Nixon was great.
I find Nixon abhorrent and you dislike LBJ, but great is not the same as good.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

See what I mean? You can disagree whether or not LBJ was a good President but it's a fact that he was great

The same can be said for Jackson, Lincoln, Nixon etc.