Who was the worst Democratic president of 20th century; the worst Repub?

[Enraged American]

Just for fun.

[disgruntella]

1. I can only answer for the 21st

;) Just kidding. Question requires too much thought for my mental state, so I'll just be a wiseass. Proceed...

[Brucey]

2. Nixon changed my life and made me a cynical, bitter

anarchist. Maybe that means he was good! Chimp 'n' Thief is the worst president I've seen in my life. The worst Dem was True-Man because he dropped two atom bombs on large civilian cities just to have bargaining power with Russia.

[Sancho Panza]

3. Wilson and Reagan

eom

[Brian Sweat]

59. Hear, Hear

I was going to say Wilson and Shrub, but Shrub was not a 20th century president. If Wilson were alive today, he would be a freeper.

[leftofthedial]

4. I won't make any friends with this, but

Worst Democratic PResident: JFK

Worst Republican President: GW Bush (REagan, Nixon and GHW Bush tied for next-worst)

[edward]

10. Why is JFK worst Democrat?

And let's stay friends.

[leftofthedial]

26. It's not that I don't like JFK, it's just a question of ranking

JFK was a dynamic, articulate man. I love many of his quotes, But his policies were actually quite conservative. The Viet Nam quagmire lies squarely at the doorstep of his administration, whose policies regarding the war were not all that dissimilar to PNAC re: Iraq.

JFK's handling of the Cuban missile crisis was excellent, but other than that, he didn't really leave a legacy.

Halberstam's book, The Best and the Brightest is a pretty good read about the JFK administration, warts and all.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

47. "The Viet Nam quagmire lies squarely at the doorstep of JFK"?? No,...

...absolutely not! The following websites will help you to understand what actually went on behind the scenes.

The late L. Fletcher Prouty, Colonel USAF (Ret.), the military's liaison to the CIA while he was stationed in the Pentagon, and the technical adviser on Stone's movie "JFK", was interviewed in 1989 on the following topic:

"UNDERSTANDING
SPECIAL OPERATIONS
And Their Impact on The Vietnam War Era"
<http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/USO/>

Take a good look at some of the titles of the various chapters in this book...Prouty was involved in everything from Indochina to the Bay of Pigs. Of particular note are the chapters on The Secret Team and the assassination of JFK.

<http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/USO/appB.txt>

Appendix B (scroll down near the bottom of the webpage) discusses NSAM 263 signed by JFK on October 5, 1963, that discussed supporting South Vietnam but authorizing the withdrawal of 1000 troops from Vietnam by the end of 1963. One and a half months later, JFK was killed in Dallas.

The appendix also discusses NSAM 273 signed by LBJ on November 26, 1963, just four days after JFK's assassination. This NSAM specifically stated that the U. S. would help South Vietnam win the war against North Vietnam.

[ProfessorGAC]

50. One Thing That JFK Said That Sticks In My Throat

"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country."

My answer, "No!" I owe the country NOTHING! I live here. I work here. I pay my taxes, and NEVER complain about paying them. I appreciate this country for what it is and, moreso, what it can be.

But, this sentiment is now the rallying cry for all the braindead conservatives who believe the country should do nothing for those who can't do for themselves and everything for those who can. The assumption is that since big biz makes the country "work", they "deserve it". That's a rotten, social darwinistic sentiment that was started with that one statement by JFK.

I shouldn't HAVE to do anything for this country. And i should be able to ask that the roads are taken care of, the airports are safe, the food is safe, the drugs work, and that we can't be invaded by a a foreign entity. I have the right to expect those things. The gov't has NO right to expect anything of me, other than to obey the law.

Man i wish he had never said that.
The Professor

[Sancho Panza]

14. one correction

The original post did call for 20th century presidents, which disqualifies Bush II of the 21st century. Even more than that, I can never bring myself to call him president. :-)

Also, I agree with you to some extent about Kennedy - I feel he is vastly overrated, and mythologized due to his assassination. But he was no white supremacist like Wilson, who set back civil rights four more decades, and who also fought hard against women's suffrage. If it wasn't for his stroke, and his wife fulfilling many of his duties, who knows if the 20t amendment would have passed when it did.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

22. JFK may not be as great as the myth portrays him,

but he did start the civil rights ball rolling (the LBJ continued), and there was the Cubam Missile Crisis, not to mention the peace corps.

P.S. You're right about one thing, though. Wilson was a disgrace. A racist and a incompetent crook.

[Hippo_Tron]

5. Carter and Hoover

Carter may have had some bad luck but I'd still say was ineffective (on a bright note for Carter fans I've heard he's a really nice guy). Hoover basically didn't know anything about ecenomics and is a large part of why we had the great depression. Had we put FDR in office in 1928 I bet he would've addressed the problems that caused the depression before they became bigger problems.

[coda]

41. Carter and Hoover both got bad raps.

Carter did a lot of critically important things that had to be done and stayed the course regardless of political cost to himself. That takes courage.

The crash Hoover had to deal with was unlike anything anybody had dealt with before, with nothing to use as a guide.

[WoodrowFan]

43. Hoover

Actually the Great Depression of 1893-96 would have made a decent model. I do feel sorry for Hoover though. He did a lot of good work feeding the hungry during and after World War I. He just couldn't fit the facts of the Depression into his mindset. Not a bad man, not an uncaring one, but the perfect example of the wrong man int he wrong place at the wrong time..

[coda]

54. Hoover had the disadvantage of being in office

while a long and incredible economy was peaking. Almost everybody was convinced that hands-off capitalism would go on forever.

The reason I don't think he had a model to use is that it was a much larger economy than that of the turn of the century and the Federal Reserve was still a fairly new element too. The Feds didn't have a clue what to do either. The government, in pre-Fed Reserve times used to just go to J.P. Morgan and plead "Do something!" like they did in 1907.

If the Crash had happened a year before Hoover took office I think he could have been more flexible and possibly would have picked advisors that weren't so hands-off. FDR had the advantage of watching for three years and had a much freer hand for experimentation.

[Enraged American]

6. I'll give my two cents,

Truman was the worst Democrat. This guy completely screwed up America's relations with the Soviet Union. If FDR hadn't died there would never have been a Cold War.

The worst Republican was Reagan. He made the Republican Party what it is today. What was before a centrist-capitalist party became a belligerent, chickenhawk, religious party. He savaged Ford and was the most divisive president of the last half-century.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

23. Ruined our Relations with the Soviet Union?

You mean that Communist dictatorship run by that butcher Stalin? Get real. Truman had to win WWII, and the only reason we allied with Russia during WWII was to stop Hitler.

You're right about Reagan though. Reagan turned the Republican Party into the right-wing Party we have today. TR is rolling over in his grave.

[dwckabal]

7. OK, here goes:

Worst Republican: Three-way tie with Harding, Coolidge and Hoover paving the way for the Great Depression. Runner-Up: probably the current "pResident".

Worst Democrat: Would have to be Woodrow Wilson, for segregating the Federal government, and lying to the American people to get us into WWI after running on a peace platform. Runner-Up: Harry Truman for allowing the Cold War mentality to develop.

[WoodrowFan]

31. actually

Wilson let several southern members of his Cabinet segregate their departments. Those that did not want to segregate did not. That meant the Post Office and Treasury re-segregated. The others did not (the military was already segregated).

As for World War I, he was dragged into it kicking and screaming. It was only the Zimmermann Telegram and unrestricted submarine warfare that finally convinced him. He resisted republican pressure for two years to get into the war (after the Lusitania in May 1915).

(edited for spelling, this bad typist is even WORSE when he's mad)

[StandWatie]

34. true..

WWI was really started by the yellow press of the day. Liberal academia congratulated itself on whipping up an insane anti-german fanaticism because it was the first time the people rather than a king or some other form of ruler decided it was a good idea.

[ButterflyBlood]

8. answers:

Dem: Truman, slaughtered civilians to look tough to Russia
Repuke: George the Lesser by far

[Brucey]

19. Hey, we agreed!

[edward]

9. Worst Republican: Reagan.

Made room for the current junta. Made right wing hatred seem patriotic
rather than just hateful. Made U.S. corporations the true leaders of our nation. Blamed the poor for moral failure, cause of economy's slow down.
Made being stupid a privilege of the upper class.

[JohnKleeb]

11. hmmm

Dem- I dunno something tells me Wilson although I do respect people's concerns with Truman but Truman I do admire
Republican- Bush II
d'oh on Wilson let me explain
I admire him for the League of nations idea but I dunno I heard that he loved the movie birth of a nation and was kind of racist.
Truman I will explain why despite the Atom bomb I like him. He desegerated the military. He got the fair deal passed, and he worked hard to repeal the Taft-Hartley act plus he was a likable guy and I will tell you a story later.

[WoodrowFan]

37. Birth of a Nation

Yep, Wilson did like the movie "Birth of a Nation.". The author of the book it was based on (The Clansman) was a childhood friend. Didn't like the reborn Klan of 1915 though, thought they were a bunch of thugs. His attitude was typical of any white southern Democrat who grew up in Civil War and Reconstruction Georgia and South Carolina. Compared to others he was rather moderate. He also rejected the anti-Catholic and anti-Jewish prejudices of his time (his Secretary, i.e. Chief of Staff was Catholic and he appointed the first Jewish member of the Supreme Court.) he also rejected the anti-immigration feeling of the period. He vetoed federal anti-immigration laws. I suspect very few of us would have had more enlighted attitudes had we been born in his shoes and that a lot of us would have been worse!

[DerekG]

12. Definitely Truman...

He forged the National Security State--could you imagine what would have happened if Henry A. Wallace, the true inheritor of the New Deal, was the VP in '45.

Second Place: Wilson

The worst Republican president was Reagan, who systematically destroyed the Great Society, and planted the seeds for oppression in Latin America and the Middle East.

Second Place: Nixon (Cambodia bombing, anyone?)

[JohnKleeb]

13. I kinda see your point yet again

and I do like Wallace keep in mind.

[pasadenaboy]

15. LBJ and Nixon

Nixon because he was an evil liar that tried to destroy our democracy.

LBJ because of all the soldiers who died unnecessarily because he didn't have the foresight to pull out of vietnam

[bookman]

16. Gore

He won and we've heard little from him at all. :)

[wuushew]

17. Raygun for both

Raygun was still a registered democrat until something like 1961, therefore I submitt that he was both the worst Republican and worst Democratic President(or atleast politician) of the 20th century.

[jmm]

18. Wilson and Reagan

Wilson was a racist warmonger who supported sedition and espionage laws and who invaded Mexico basically to show he could.

Under Reagan the debt, homelessness, crack, AIDS, unemployment, the wage gap between the rich and poor, and crime sky-rocketed. Also he helped destablize governments in Latin America. Didn't he have a habit of falling asleep during cabinet meetings?

edited for spelling

[WoodrowFan]

29. check your facts..

Invaded Mexico to show he could?? He resisted for years tremendous pressure from both parties to invade Mexico to install a pro-US government. He invaded in 1914 to stop an arms shipment (mistakenly thought to be german) from reaching the Mexican Dictator (Wilson supported the Revolution) and the second time because Villa invaded the US. And even then he did so only because the raid had followed months of cross-border raids by Mexicans into the US.

As for the espionage laws, he specifially told Palmer NOT to use them to attack political opponents. It's is still a black mark on hisr ecord, tho, I agree. I think if he hasn't had his last stroke (which destroyed his judgement) he would have had a much better record in 1919-1920 and Plamer would have been out on his ass.

[jiacinto]

20. Hoover--worst Republican

I would have to say Carter for the worst Democrat. but he was also a victim of a lot of bad luck too.

[Lone_Wolf_Moderate]

21. Well let's see..

Worst Dem: Woodrow Wilson (rabid racist, crook)
Worst Repub: tie b/t Reagan (deficits, deregulation) and Nixon (crook)

[WoodrowFan]

28. Wilson a Crook?? A CROOK!!??

Sorry, but he was as honest as Carter. Did ZERO political favors for campaign donors. He tried practicing law after he left the White house but he quit because he turned down every case but one because they might look like a conflict of interest. (His health wasn't up to it either but he was in denial about that) He also refused to cash in on his former office once he left. No endorsements, etc, even tho he was asked A LOT.



As for racist, yes, but rabid? Not more than anybody else who grew up in Civil War//Reconstruction Georgia. At least he thought the reborn Klan was a group of thugs. For a Southern Democrat of the time he was a racial moderate.

[mlawson]

24. Wilson and Dumbo. n/t

[David Zephyr]

25. Wilson and George H. Bush

Wilson: WWI and his appointment of Palmer as Atty. General.

GH Bush: I chose him not just because of his Presidency, but because his role as Vice President under Reagan and his calling the shots in Iran/Contra, and because of his role with the CIA for decades engineering not just failed policies, but blowback against this nation all around the gobe, and because of his treasonist relationship with the bin Laden family selling out this country's energy policy and our environment for personal finacial gain.

[Nashyra]

27. Wilson and Bunnypants

Bunnypants is the worst PERSON to occupy the WH, worst elected Repug was Regan.

[Catholic Sensation]

30. Worst dem

Democrat: I can't forgive FDR for just giving Poland to the fucking asshole soviet union, but I will go with my gut and say LBJ for Vietnam.

Republican: In the twentieth century, with the exception of Roosevelt, was there actually a good republican? This is like trying to decide whose shit smells the worst, but if we're going purely 20th century, then I'd have to say Reagan, he not only bankrupted the USSR, but he ruined our economy as well! Yeah he's a real fucking hero...

[WoodrowFan]

33. Poland

"Democrat: I can't forgive FDR for just giving Poland to the fucking asshole soviet union, but I will go with my gut and say LBJ for Vietnam."

So FDR was supposed to do WHAT about millions of Soviet troops in Poland??

[StandWatie]

44. I'd fault him the other way

WWII was prolonged by at least six months because the US and UK continued to arm resistance fighters in Poland against the Soviets tying them down. Those were a vital six months and millions in the camps wouldn't have died if it wasn't for playing games with our allies.

[WoodrowFan]

32. JFK and a 6-way Tie for Repub

JFK for being to timid towards Civil Rights and to getting us further into Vietnam. LBJ gets a close second for Vietnam, but brownie points for Civil Rigfhts laws and Great Society.

For republican, tie between Harding/Cooledge/Nixon/Raygun/Bush1, Bush2.


As for the Wilson haters, here's his "conservative record."

Won..

huge tarriff reduction (which vastly helped consumers)

child labor laws

the 8 hour day

required mediation for labor strikes

women's sufferage

supported Mexican Revolution

fought for independence for Poland, Czechoslavikia, Yugoslavia, Armenia, Phillipines, Hungary, Finland, etc.

First bill for federal support for roads

rural free delivery (i.e. farmers can get US mail as well!)

re-invigorated prosecution under Anti-Trust Laws

worker's compensation laws

education for average sailors in Navy so they could become officers (before Wilson officers had political and social connections and the
average enlisted men could never dream of becomign an officer.) He also allowed the first Women to serve in the Navy during the war.

efforts to improve the awful housing for poor whites AND blacks in DC (an effort which failed because Congress drew up the law poorly)


Federal Reserve (removing money supply from control of 2-3 New York banks)

appointed first Jewish member of Supreme Court, Louis Brandeis, who first championed the idea that the Court should consider the effect of laws when considering their constitutionality. Without this idea you can kiss pretty much every law protecting consumers and workers goodbye.

vetoed anti-immigration legislation as unfair to the poor and descriminating against Catholics and Jews.

won the first progressive income tax

vetoed Volstead Act inforcing prohibition, it passed over his veto.

Sorry, but I still think World War I was entirely just.

Black Marks...(to be fair)
allowed several Cabinet members to resegregate their departments

allowed Post Office and Attny General to prosecute anti-war activists.

allowed State Dept and Dept of Navy to institute Prohibition. (he
alloweded Cabinet members to run their own departments)

failed to get Legaue of Nations through Congress

loved movie "Birth of a Nation" (most white Southerners DID)

Others:

occupied Haiti, but only after the county completely fell apart. TRIED to build a new government there but failed. Ditto with Domanican Republic.



There's a reason why Labor and many former members of the Progressive Party supported WIlson, he was the most Progressive President in US history before FDR.

[robbedvoter]

35. You tie W with ANYBODY - you need to buy a clue.

The other weird stuff (liking KKK is "moderate") all pale when compared to this one.

[WoodrowFan]

39. I didn't say..

I did NOT say that the Klan was moderate. I said most white southern democrats of the time thought the Klan of the 1860s was (gag) necessary. Wilson didn't think lynching were justified and he was neutral on segregation in the US governemnt which for a Southern Democrat in 1915 WAS moderate.

As for "clues," I am a professional historian with a Ph.D. in American history with a speciality in Progressive Era US politics and diplomacy. Can you match that cluewise? No, I didn't think so.

[ma4t]

55. KKK in late 19th and early 20th century

It's long enough ago that we can afford to be honest. The KKK in the late 19th and early 20th century was basically the "strong arm" wing of the Democratic party in the South. It arose as a way for white Southern Democrats to regain by terror the power they had lost as a result of the enfranchisement of former slaves.

It's unpleasant to acknowledge it but the Democratic party was pretty late to the game in supporting rights for blacks, and for a long part of its existence the suppression of blacks was one of its core operating principles.

[WoodrowFan]

57. Alas, yes

The symbol of the Democratic Party in much of the south was not the Donkey, but a Rooster crowing the words "White Supremacy."

One small correction--in the 1920s what party the Klan supported depended on the local situation. There were Republican Klansmen as well, in Indiana for example. The Klan issue split both parties outside of the deep South.

[bleedingheart]

36. Yeah...Wilson is getting a bad rap in this thread

He was a relatively good president but I think the hype over his stroke and his wife's involvement in his presidency has somehow clouded everything positive he did do...

he failed to get the League through Congress because isolationism was still vogue at that time....

[WoodrowFan]

40. bad rap

Plus the self-rightous LOVE to judge the people of the past by today's standards using 20-20 hindsight. I try not to because I don't want to be judged by the standards of say, 2075. How reactionary will WE look by the standards of our grandkids? You have to put things in prespective of their times and measure them by their contemporaries....

[JVS]

46. I agree with you

Wilson is being maligned. I think that US entry into WWI was wrong and was most likely an attempt to protect the investments that wealthy Americans had made in the British and French governments, not to mention the strong affinity of our national ruling class for "mother England". Fortunately the war was almost over by the time our soldiers got there. Even though I disagree with the war, but must agree that Wilson's was a good president.

I also agree that JFK is the worst Democratic president. Don't forget that his handling of Cuba after the bay of pigs crisis resembled G. W. Bush's foreign policy by personality that we so despise today. Kennedy took the bay of pigs as a personal embarrassment and became determined to destroy Castro. Naturally, Castro decided to cozy up to the Soviets as a defensive measure, which leads to the missile crisis. So the world goes to the brink of WWIII because Kennedy got pissed off that a CIA operation, one which had only slight connections to him in the first place, goes wrong. This is not my idea of responsible leadership.

[ArkDem]

38. Republican = dubya

Democratic = How can you say worst when you have a group of great men. The least great, maybe?

[ShaneGR]

42. Carter and Dubya

[ElsewheresDaughter]

45. Truman..........Ike/Nixon tie...Ike for 1953 Iran coup

W i9s 21st century orelse he would be my pic...he is my pic for "worst president ever"

[coda]

48. LBJ and Bush 41

LBJ Vietnam

Bush 41 for spawning the worst President of the 21st Century.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

49. Worst Republicans.....

1-Reagan(Iran Contra, Latin America Suppression, National Debt, anti Labor)

2-GW Bush(No Explanation Needed!)

3-Nixon(Watergate, Latin America Suppression)

4-Hoover(did nothing to fix the greatest economical disaster in history)

5-Harding(Overtly and Proudly corrupt!!!)But isn't that what all Rethugs are???


:kick:

[phillybri]

51. Dem: Wilson, Rep: Nixon

eom

[BurtWorm]

52. George W. Bush in NOT the worst "prez" of the 20th Century

He is the worst "prez" of all time, but his term never touched the 20th century. Therefore, that distinction would have to fall to Reagan, for lowering the standards for presidential intelligence and competence for all time, or Nixon, for criminalizing the office. Both of these pieces of shit served as templates for the "king" of bad "prez's" we're suffering through today.

As for bad Dem prezes, in my lifetime: Carter, for screwing up the chance for Dems to hold the WH after Nixon's disgrace and for launching events in Afghanistan that evolved (through the midwifery of Reagan-Bush) into Jihad vs. McWorld. (Johnson's Vietnam war misadeventures were mitigated by his bold embrace of Civil Rights and the Great Society.)

Before my time: I've always had a hard spot in my heart for Truman for dropping the atom bomb.

[Q]

53. My input:

Dem President: Clinton

GOP presidents: Reagan/GWB

[11 Bravo]

56. Wilson and Bush I.

I agree it's unfair to view Wilson through a century-old prism, but I can't think of a Dem I would rate lower. Bush I because by planting his seed in a bug-eyed booze hound he unleashed the chimp on an unsuspecting world.

[Raenelle]

58. W, hands down, as worst Repuklicon

My choice for worst Dem president will be unpopular, so I'll just hide it here where it won't be read--Harry Truman, IMHO.

I'm not nuts about Wilson. He was an egomaniac who was self-rigteous and saw everything in terms of morality, good vs. evil, and found it impossible to compromise. But he did begin a tradition in this country that lasted until March of 2003 of respecting the self-determination of nations.

JFK? JFK????? Who said he was a bad president????? Just go watch the movie 13 Days. He, along with Krushchev, saved the world from a frikking nuclear war by refusing to bend over to the military.

Truman--no finesse. Big military spender. Starts the Cold War and frames it as a war against an ideology, seeing Communism as the foe rather than the Soviet Union. That framing, that inability to see the Soviet Union as another nation-state, leads down the road to Vietnam. Now admittedly, containment is far better than pre-emption, but the tendency to be at war with an idea has landed us now, without any bruising of our brains, into fighting a war against a frikking tactics (terrorism).

I also think this worldwide war against an idea, or now against a tactic, has to be predicated on an appeal to some primitive notion that we're all powerful. So MacArthur crosses the 38th parallel in Korea and we end up fighting the Chinese for 3 years, all for a truce we could have had 3 months into the war. We think the Vietnamese are just peasants in black pajamas, and 10 years later, we declare victory as we slink out right ahead of the coup against our puppet. We act like no country and no combination of countries can challenge us now in the world, and x number of months or years from now, we will declare victory in Iraq and slink out before the coup against our puppet. Starts with Truman, IMO.

He backed the Unions and civil rights, it can be argued, as a tactic to expose the "do nothing" 80th Congress. And he gave as good as he got in the red Commie witchhunting that obsessed the country after the fall of China.

[swinney]

60. surprise

clinton did nothing. no policies.no list of achievements. name five good things done by him.

Ike. a do nothing guy.