The “Experts” Got One Right: The Worst Illegitimate President in History: You Guessed It
Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart
A recent poll of presidential scholars ranked our nation’s presidents 1-45, Grover Cleveland was elected twice, but not consecutively, from best to worst. I agree with one of their findings but disagree with others. My criteria are much less convoluted. I rate presidents by what they accomplished for the American people or for the damage they caused while pretending to be an American President.
Although it is very close, I will always believe that Franklin Delano Roosevelt was the greatest president in history. Every action by the president who served longer than any other was in service of the majority.
Lincoln, Washington, T. Roosevelt, and Jefferson would follow, but this is where my differences begin.
Placing Truman in sixth place is an honor he does not deserve. Other than the fact that he was well-known as a racist and bigot, in my estimation he was the greatest mass murderer in history. He made a single decision based on expediency to take the lives of at least 250,000 Japanese citizens. The mostly innocent men, women, and children living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki were erased in the blink of an eye. I believe he belongs in the group of 20 or 30 worst.
President Obama was ranked seventh, and I believe that is too high. I was a huge fan of our 44th president, but he was prevented from doing the right thing often based on his opposition from the “party of no,” and for political expediency. His refusal to inform American voters about Putin’s involvement in our 2016 election when it was confirmed in October of 2016, will forever prevent my consideration for rating him a “great president.”
As we go down the list, neither Eisenhower nor Lyndon Johnson deserve such an esteemed ranking. There is no possibility that they are ranked higher than Kennedy, Clinton, J Adams, or Biden.
As I go down the list, I would never rate Reagan as the 16th best president. He failed to represent the majority of the American people, favoring those who were wealthy, male, white, and Christian. He should be somewhere around 25th or even lower.
The two which bother me most are George W. Bush, ranked at 32, and Nixon, ranked at 35.
My standard of service to the nation’s people, a president’s primary duty and purpose, completely disagrees.
George W. Bush’s failed economic policy forced tens of thousands of home foreclosures, and nearly resulted in another depression. He lied to congress and the American people, placing our nation in two unwinnable wars resulting in the deaths of more than 100,000 individuals, including American military and Iraqi civilians. His administration wasted trillions of dollars. His accomplishments for the majority were non-existent. He should be 44th, or at the least 43rd worst president.
Nixon has been attacked based on a serious crime, the crime which forced him to resign from office. However, his accomplishments for our nation’s people and the future of our country far outnumber every Republican who followed him combined. His actions related to foreign policy and his domestic agenda were extraordinary. Just to name a very few, he began the first nuclear weapon reduction discussions with the USSR, established relations with China, created the EPA, ended the draft, and secured the right to vote for 18-year-olds. There are many, many more.
Finally, the one they got completely right was ranking Trump as the worst in history. He lost 44th place to Buchanan by about six percentage points.
The truth is he failed to accomplish one thing for the majority. In fact, his only true “accomplishments” were huge tax cuts for corporations and the wealthiest Americans. His greatest failures were attempting to overthrow our government, stealing secret documents, and he alone was responsible for the unforgivable deaths of more than a million Americans related to Covid-19. For months he did nothing, telling our nation’s people, “it will just go away.”
Trump caused more harm to our nation than the attack on Pearl Harbor, illegal wars in Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq and the cowardly attacks on September 11, 2001.
The truth is, Trump is not an American. His loyalty is to Putin, the Saudi Royal Family, and anyone who saved his failing business “empire.” No one has ever been more unfit for office than the orange buffoon.
Op-ed by James Turnage
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