Wilson or Harding?

[TDAS04]

?

[Samantha]

At least Harding pardoned Eugene Debs. Having a hard time thinking of something I would tip my hat to Wilson for.

[Rockefeller GOP]

Corruption is always a tricky thing to include in rankings, IMO.

I'll leave it at this: Harding had much, much better policies.

[YaBoyNY]

Harding is actually fairly underrated.

[TDAS04]

I voted Harding.

[Mr. Smith]

Wilson's policies set the stage for the New Deal, and his plans for the League of Nations were absolutely brilliant.

Harding's practically started the snowball to Depression, and he was inattentive to the corruption around him, and then he let in Coolidge.


Bankrupt as Wilson may have been as a person, he was still a better president.

[The Dowager Mod]

Harding may have been a better person, but Wilson was a better president.

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

If Wilson didn't have that disastrous second term, he would have squeaked it.

[SWE]

Harding, and it's about as close as a comparison between Lincoln and Buchanan

[Lief 🗽]

This thread is so hilariously Atlas.

[RogueBeaver]

I voted Harding.

[Unconditional Surrender Truman]

This thread is so hilariously Atlas.

[Phony Moderate]

This thread is so hilariously Atlas.

[RINO Tom]

Harding, by a mile.  Wilson probably rightfully went down as the better President in the corny, catch-all historian sense, but Harding was a better man by most standards, and his policies were a lot better.

I'll actually agree with Lief, HST and Phony here, though, that far left posters picking Harding over Wilson really is rejecting the spirit of liberalism.  We often get hung up on actual, rather inconsequential tactics to describe someone's ideology (e.g., Lincoln used the Federal government a lot so he's a liberal or Clinton cut welfare, so he's a conservative), when it's really their motives that were important.  Wilson really did, in so many ways, set the stage for FDR, while Harding unabashedly campaigned on a conservative, pro-business message.  And, ending my disagreement with those posters, that's exactly why I picked him.

[SWE]

far left posters picking Harding over Wilson really is rejecting the spirit of liberalism.

Unsurprising, given that liberalism and far leftism are mutually exclusive.

[RINO Tom]

far left posters picking Harding over Wilson really is rejecting the spirit of liberalism.

Unsurprising, given that liberalism and far leftism are mutually exclusive.

I meant liberalism in the broadest sense of "everything left of center," thinking that anyone left of center would prefer anything left of center (regardless of how far left) over anything right of center.

[windjammer]

This thread is so hilariously Atlas.

[VPH]

Wilson. League of Nations, trust-busting, etc. C'mon Atlas, this is silly.

[OSR stands with Israel]

?

Why are so many dems choosing Harding lol. Wilson was probably the most progressive president until FDR, and on WW1 do you know Teddy Roosevelt was far more hawkish on the war then Wilson and Teddy>Wilson. Yes I know Wilson was very very racist but many of you are willing to forgive LBJ on Vietnam in which LBJ lied to get us involved in Vietnam.

Here's Wilson Progressive actions

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/wilson/portrait/wp_legislate_02.html


Do I think Wilson is a top 15 president no, is he overrated by historians(heck yes), but is he worse the harding(one of the worst presidents ever no)

[🦀🎂🦀🎂]

Pretty much all of the 1912 candidates would have signed "progressive" legislation. But I don't think the others would have segregated the military and civil service, nor would they have failed in WW1 so badly.

[Oldiesfreak1854]

Harding, in spite of his scandals.

[TNF]

The one that ended World War I, pardoned Eugene Debs, and stopped the Palmer Raids.

[Lief 🗽]

Of course there's also a lot of True Leftist hate for Wilson because he essentially killed any hope of there ever being an American labor party by aligning the Democrats with organized trade unions by, among other things, pushing through Congress the "Magna Carta" of the American labor movement.

[TNF]

Of course there's also a lot of True Leftist hate for Wilson because he essentially killed any hope of there ever being an American labor party by aligning the Democrats with organized trade unions by, among other things, pushing through Congress the "Magna Carta" of the American labor movement.

Odd that there were continued attempts to build a labor party (some actually led by labor bureaucrats themselves!) after Wilson, if what you're asserting is true. The early 1920s saw the American Federation of Labor and Railway Brotherhoods get very close to endorsing an independent Farmer-Labor Party, but this was jettisoned by the insane anti-communist mood set in motion by Wilson and the Democratic Party.

Likewise, when the CIO moved toward the direction of a Labor Party in the 1930s, it was stopped by the pro-FDR Communist Party USA.

[TheElectoralBoobyPrize]

Harding's winning 2-1 on a left-leaning forum lol.