Worst President of the 20th Century

Who do you think was the worst US President of the 20th Century? Please disclose your reasons for believing so.

Although Wilson seems to be the doctrinal genesis of so much of why people detest the modern US government, surely he achieved things domestically?

Ronald Raygun, though. War on Drugs, Central America, supply-side economics, SDI, deliberate hamstringing of the conservation movement, wanting to test a nuke in the Tasman. Massive faggot. The shitcunt grin never helped either.

Originally Posted by Cal

Although Wilson seems to be the doctrinal genesis of so much of why people detest the modern US government, surely he achieved things domestically?

Wilson tends to get a free pass for Women's Suffrage but among the things he accomplished domestically included firing blacks from Federal positions and imposing full segregation in DC. Of course, hardline racists didn't like Wilson because he didn't oppress blacks enough, and Wilson ended up being the classic example of the overt racist with black friends.

He also repressed free speech through the Espionage and Sedition acts in unprecedented ways to help fight a war we shouldn't have been in.

Lots of presidents have had terrible foreign policy, but I don't think anybody can claim to have damaged international relations for eight decades like Wilson did.

Yeah, I recall reading of unprecedented interracial tension during his government. Didn't lynchings shoot right up throughout the '20s to numbers that hadn't been seen for decades?

Wilson and the Espionage/Sedition Acts reminds me of Billy Hughes and conscription, actually. The zealotry of their interest in Europe's war not tempered even by the prospect of career destruction... Or perhaps it wasn't as big a threat in Wilson's situation; I've NFI what the US electoral attitude was to the First WW.

Quote:

Yeah, I recall reading of unprecedented interracial tension during his government. Didn't lynchings shoot right up throughout the '20s to numbers that hadn't been seen for decades?

It was also what sparked the tremendous resurgence of the Klan, and while Wilson stated publicly that they were annoying, he didn't do anything to stop them, of course.

Quote:

I've NFI what the US electoral attitude was to the First WW.

Leading up to the war attitudes were divisive, but once Wilson framed it as a religious war for the security of Democracy, legislators who opposed the war were accused of being traitors.

Wow all those comments about Wilson sound eerily familiar.

I really can't comment on worst president of the 20th century because I'm not at all that familiar with many of them. I guess I could go with Richard Nixon for the usual reasons.

Originally Posted by guyinrubbersuit

I really can't comment on worst president of the 20th century because I'm not at all that familiar with many of them. I guess I could go with Richard Nixon for the usual reasons.

You mean resumed good relations with China, established a peaceful period during the Cold War with detente, pulled us out of Vietnam with reasonable success, established the EPA and OSHA, and successfully enforced school integration in the south?

That bastard.

Well, there was also the whole bombing Cambodia thing and starting The War on Drugs, but I wouldn't really call Nixon the worst president either. Watergate was what really sank him.

How in the HELL can you say Ronald Reagan is the worst president of the 20th century? The man is easily in the Top 3 (FDR and Eisenhower the only ones I could conceivably put ahead of him).

With that said -- Jimmy Carter has to be the worst president of the 20th.

Originally Posted by Night Phoenix

How in the HELL can you say Ronald Reagan is the worst president of the 20th century?

People inclined toward the left often do. Foreigners of that inclination even more so.

That said, I'm inclining towards Lyndon Johnson in this poll. Vietnam figures prominently, in that Johnson both got us heavily involved in that war, and then managed to lose it by halting the pursuit after Ia Drang, overruling his commanders. This let the Communists get away without suffering further casualties. It also, by allowing them to escape into Cambodia, established that country as a safe haven and set Nixon up for all kinds of hell when he tried to do something about it years later.

He was also responsible for the expansion of federal power over domestic policy that the Great Society brought.

Originally Posted by Night Phoenix

With that said -- Jimmy Carter has to be the worst president of the 20th.

Carter has basically gone completely insane and said terrible things in public while in far-away countries about the country he formerly served. That, right there gentlemen, makes him incredibly worse than anyone else on the list.

Despite all his bullshit, *at least* Nixon went to China.

(I'm not sure about Johnson. I think its a bigger error to not know when to leave a war than it is to get involved. He certainly did some things I don't like, but that can be said about practically every president I know anything about - save Roosevelt.)

I can't decide between Bush or Reagan. I voted for Bush; I suppose I'm biased, though, because I have a more vivid impression of the presidents who were in office during my lifetime. Truman is in the race as well, since he eventually made the decision to drop the atomic bombs on Japan.

Originally Posted by Traveller87

I can't decide between Bush or Reagan. I voted for Bush; I suppose I'm biased, though, because I have a more vivid impression of the presidents who were in office during my lifetime.

Yeah no shit. Bush was one of the least eventful Presidencies in history, Gulf War aside.

Originally Posted by LeHah

I think its a bigger error to not know when to leave a war than it is to get involved.

This is perfectly understandable. My point wasn't that he got us involved, per se, but that he (with no small amount of assistance from Robert McNamara) set us up for failure in Vietnam and all the misery that resulted from it. If you're going to do something as important as fight a war, do it right.

(Yes, this same criticism can and should be leveled against George W. Bush and Donald Rumsfeld.)

Johnson also made the mistake of appointing Ramsey Clark as Attorney General.

Originally Posted by Traveller87

I can't decide between Bush or Reagan. I voted for Bush; I suppose I'm biased, though, because I have a more vivid impression of the presidents who were in office during my lifetime.

That's pretty shaky reasoning; by that logic, Clinton should be on your list, too.

I wouldn't really consider McKinley for the 20th century since he wasn't around for long. Regardless, I would probably say the presidents that were around in the 20s, Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover were probably some of the worst presidents of the 20th century. I would put them along along with Carter and probably Johnson as well, though Johnson did pass some good civil rights legislation. Oh, and yes Wilson was a racist, but he was still a progressive that cracked down on trusts and so forth, and he had some good ideas too, like the League of Nations.

Originally Posted by phatmastermatt

I wouldn't really consider McKinley for the 20th century since he wasn't around for long.

He was still technically a 20th Century president. Not only that, but the Spanish-American War sparked the beginning of the United States as an imperial, or interventionist global power, which set the tone for T. Roosevelt, Wilson, and the Cold War.