Worst Democratic President of the 20th Century

[darklordoftech]

?

[OSR stands with Israel]

Its Objectively Carter and its not even close and other than Hoover , he is the worst president in the 20th century period.

[nicholas.slaydon]

Kennedy.

[Goldwater]

Carter

[SWE]

Truman

[Antonio the Sixth]

Clinton

[John Dule]

Wilson and it isn’t close at all.

[Mr. Smith]

Clinton.

[President Punxsutawney Phil]

In terms of job performance, Carter, pretty clearly.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Its Objectively Carter and its not even close and other than Hoover , he is the worst president in the 20th century period.

Solar panels, fiscal responsibility, sound monetary policy, and human rights are terrible!

[LAKISYLVANIA]

Its Objectively Carter and its not even close and other than Hoover , he is the worst president in the 20th century period.

There's no objective "worst president), that's first. Secondly, Carter isn't the worst Democratic president of the 20st century. Thirdly, Hoover isn't even the worst president of the US in the 20st century. He just was the one unfortunate to be elected and have the great depression immediately, while his predecessors all implemented naive laissez-faire politics, and who gets the blame. Hoover.

The worst president IMO is probably Woodrow Wilson and Ronald Reagan. But these are subjective opinions, but I think the impact they had (which was indeed a lot) has been damaging and toxic for the USA. I don't care about that they led the US succesfully through WW1 and Cold War. In the long run, they damaged a lot of institutions and had a horrible influence on the world.

[LBJer]

I voted for Carter.  After voting, I checked the latest Siena presidential rankings.  Turns out that Carter has by far the lowest ranking of any of the presidents listed in our poll here.  Yet he still doesn't do particularly bad--24 out of 45.  

Here are the rankings:

https://scri.siena.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/PDF-Ranking-FINAL-REAL.pdf

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Its Objectively Carter and its not even close and other than Hoover , he is the worst president in the 20th century period.

Solar panels, fiscal responsibility, sound monetary policy, and human rights are terrible!

The malaise speech was true, even if he shouldn't have said it. Most people rejected his message. They hated Carter because he told them the truth.

[If my soul was made of stone]

Its Objectively Carter and its not even close and other than Hoover , he is the worst president in the 20th century period.

Solar panels, fiscal responsibility, sound monetary policy, and human rights are terrible!

The malaise speech was true, even if he shouldn't have said it. Most people rejected his message. They hated Carter because he told them the truth.

[I Will Not Be Wrong]

Carter by competency, Wilson by values.
(Although you could say Wilson during his stroke was the worst in competence also).

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

Its Objectively Carter and its not even close and other than Hoover , he is the worst president in the 20th century period.

Solar panels, fiscal responsibility, sound monetary policy, and human rights are terrible!

The malaise speech was true, even if he shouldn't have said it. Most people rejected his message. They hated Carter because he told them the truth.

He suffered for our sins.

[Alben Barkley]

Objectively it was Carter, and I love the guy. Not a bad president on the list though.

[Alben Barkley]

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.

[Antonio the Sixth]

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.

[Benjamin Frank]

Its Objectively Carter and its not even close and other than Hoover , he is the worst president in the 20th century period.

Warren Harding is easily the worst President of the 20th Century. If ever there is such a thing as a timely death, his was it.

[The Dowager Mod]

Clinton.

[Benjamin Frank]

Its Objectively Carter and its not even close and other than Hoover , he is the worst president in the 20th century period.

Solar panels, fiscal responsibility, sound monetary policy, and human rights are terrible!

It's interesting those mentioning both Woodrow Wilson and Jimmy Carter since both were highly religious to the point of being sanctimonious. Of course, Woodrow Wilson literally believed he was predestined to become President. That he was right I don't think reduces his hubris or his nuttiness.

Jimmy Carter's post Presidency and fundamental deceny obscure for younger people how difficult it was for him to maintain his fundamential decency while having to make hard choices as President. His fundamental decency often came across as obnoxious sanctimony to voters and his decency often led him to make terrible choices as President. As one historian said "he was often moral when he should have been pragmatic and he was often pragmatic when he should have been moral."

The worst example of the former is when he allowed the Shah into the United States for cancer treatment even as the new Iranian government was calling for the United States to turn him back to Iran to be tried for crimes against humanity. For Americans, imagine how outraged you would feel if you were demanding some American be returned from some foreign country whose leader was in return calling for humane treament. In essense, Jimmy Carter was saying to the Iranian people "my religion is better than your religion."

This likely led to a much more hardline government in Iran than would have been the case otherwise, and then led to the Iranian hostage crisis.

On the latter was the East Timorise, whose near genocide Jimmy Carter did nothing to prevent as the price of keeping good relations with the Indonesian government.  

Jimmy Carter also did not have sound monetary policy other than fighting back the left in Congress who wanted more government spending (pretty much the same thing as Presidents Clinton and Obama.)  Although he appointed Paul Volcker as Chair of the Federal Reserve, contrary to what people mistakenly believe now, the independence of the Federal Reserve had not been established at that time, and President Carter clearly ordered interest rates to be lowered around May of 1980 in order to try to improve his reelection chances.

In one go in either November or December of 1980, the Fed rate went from 12 to 18% as the election was over.

Jimmy Carter was a horrible President.

That there have somehow been two worse Presidents (George W Bush and Donald Trump) since him despite all that has been learned about sound public policy in the 40 years since says something about how horrible the Republican Party has become.

[Benjamin Frank]

Clinton.

You don't like peace and prosperity?

[The Dowager Mod]

Clinton.

You don't like peace and prosperity?

I don't like amoral douchebags.

[Benjamin Frank]

Clinton.

You don't like peace and prosperity?

I don't like amoral douchebags.

Bill Clinton had an extraordinary ability to 'compartmentalize.' Although he was a horrible person in private, he was not only an expert policy wonk as President, he was one of the most honest Presidents in his public dealings.

If I had to choose between this and a sanctimonious jerk like Jimmy Carter for President, I'd choose Clinton 100 times out of 100.